WEST LAFAYETTE — The Purdue Boilermakers jumped out of the Big Body Chevy on Wednesday night as the ACC/Big Ten Challenge rolled into town with the defending national champs in tow. Undefeated No.5 Virginia pulled up looking for some smoke and found all of it in Mackey Arena. The Boilermakers defense got loose on them and their shooters got busy. By the time the smoke cleared Purdue had beaten the brakes, doors, windows and the transmission off of the Cavaliers 69-40.
It was the first time in the 52-year history of Mackey Arena that the Boilermakers had beaten a Top 5 team that wasn’t a member of the Big Ten. Purdue was purring like a kitten on defense holding their sixth straight opponent under 60 points which is their longest stretch since 2010-11.
Matt Painter’s squad looked every bit the part of an elite team on Wednesday night as they were led by sophomore guard Sasha Stefanovic’s career high 20 points. Ole boy was red hot making his first start for the Boilermakers. Jahaad Proctor dropped off 16 points, 4 rebounds and 4 steals as Matt Haarms pulled up with 11 points and 5 rebounds.
Indianapolis’ Eric Hunter came through with 10 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals just to make sure boyz didn’t have thoughts of coming back from that beat down.
There were so many cats jumping out of the ride for Purdue that it became just a bit overwhelming for Virginia. I don’t believe they expected boyz to be that ready to play after the Cavaliers slipped past them in an overtime win in the Elite Eight last spring. Tony Bennett had this to say after the game.
“When you go against a team that’s that well-coached and that intense and that physical, it kind of takes your breath away. We played on our heels all game and I had a feeling there was going to be extra motivation with that setting.”
Yessir!!! The Purdue Boilermakers have announced their arrival to the 2019-2020 college basketball season just in time for Big Ten conference play. Boot up when you come to West Lafayette because Matt Painter will have his boyz ready.
Up next: Purdue opens Big Ten conference play at Northwestern on Sunday.
