Purdue Valpo

Mackey arena tonight..

We mentioned it before the break..

The boilers looking to win their 12th straight against the crusaders..

It's not how you start but how you finish ..

Matt painter's group in a dog fight for the first 30 minutes of this game..

Valpo came to play in an empty mackey arena this evening..

First half..

Jacob onacevic in the corner..

The three ball is good..

And the crusaders have a 12-3 lead over purdue..

Valpo didn't slow down in the first frame..

Off the drive..

Nick robinson is there to clean up the miss..

And valpo takes an 11 point lead into the half..

Purdue will slowly figure things out in the second..

Sasha stefanovic starts things out..

The quick release and buckets..

Three of his game high 19 on the night..

Purdue still down five..

Later in the half... great ball movement from the boilers..

Mason gillis finds a wide open stefanovic..

You know the drill..

Purdue trims the lead to one..

Spectators getting anxious..

Purdue finally able to pull away..

Isaiah thompson from the corner..

The triple try drops with some shooters touch..

And trevion williams seals this win off for the gold and black..

Big number 50 with the smooth up and under..

17 points 11 boards for the big fella..

And purdue wins ugly..

68-61 the final score..

Matt -- our guys grinded it out.

I thought sasha was great.

In the second half.

You know isaiah just had back to back games where he didn't turn the ball over again made his free throws down the ch.

Trevion got a couple of real key baskets for us, but it's one of those things where you gotta learn some lessons about preparation and being ready to play.

And also about being a functional player when things don't go your way.

Sasha -- it shows a little mental toughness that we might have not had last year and we were able to fight our way back into the game and at least make a game of it and we got some stops down there at the end and it helped us.

Looking ahead to tomorrow ..

Senior day for