Purdue star Carsen Edwards scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half to lead No. 17 Purdue to a 73-63 victory over Minnesota on Sunday.
Trevion Williams added 16 points and Matt Haarms had 15 points and eight rebounds for the Boilermakers (16-6, 9-2 Big Ten), who moved into a three-way tie with Michigan and Michigan State for the Big Ten lead.
Amir Coffey scored 22 points, Daniel Oturu had 19 points and nine rebounds off the bench, and Jordan Murphy contributed 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Golden Gophers (16-6, 6-5).
The Boilermakers scored 13 straight to tie the game midway through the second half. Harms scored on a layup following an offensive rebound from his own missed 3-pointer to tie it at 47 with 9:50 to play.
It was part of a big 21-2 run in which the Boilers recovered after appearing to fall apart in an uncharacteristic stretch late in the first half and early part of the second.
Purdue jumped out to an 8-0 lead to start the game and led most of the first half until a late 10-2 run by Minnesota. Coffey dunked with 1:10 remaining in the half to give the Golden Gophers a 28-27 halftime lead.
Minnesota then used a 7-0 spurt to build a lead early in the second half. And a 10-1 run ended with Oturu’s layup to put Minnesota ahead 47-34 with 14:13 remaining.
Then Purdue went on its big run. Edwards scored 11 points to lead the Boilermakers’ rally after a quiet first half. Ryan Cline, who finished with 11 points, made back-to-back 3-pointers to give Purdue a 55-49 lead with 8:02 to play.
The Boilermakers led by as many as 12 after Nojel Eastern’s free throw with 21 seconds left.
BIG PICTURE
Minnesota: The Golden Gophers let this one slip away. Still, taking the lead just before halftime and going ahead by 13 after the break is a good sign in the middle of a stretch against ranked opponents, including Wisconsin and Michigan State.
Purdue: The Boilermakers looked like they were going to let the game slip away after Minnesota’s push early in the second half. Purdue struggled to make up for Edwards’ poor shooting in the first half. He was just 1 of 9 from the field.
(info courtesy of Gopher Sports, MNN Sports Photo)