The Lobos went up to West Lafayette yesterday to play a toue team and played them even for 30 minutes before Purdue was finally able to pull away. It never feels good to lose, but their strong performugh Purdance against such a good team was a good sign for how this Lobo team is going to perform for the rest of the season.

Game Recap

My main concern going into this game was that Obij was going to get into foul trouble early, which would allow Purdue’s great center combo of Isaac Haas and A.J. Hammons to just have their way down low. Unfortunately, Big O picked up his second foul just two minutes into the game, forcing Coach Neal to turn to his bench almost immediately. There was every reason that Purdue should have been able to pull away at that point and for a while, it looked like they were going to. However, every single time Purdue looked like they were about to blow the game out, the Lobos buckled down and got back within striking distance.

In the first half, it was Cullen who led the charge. Despite picking up two early fouls himself, Cullen managed to score 13 points against a very stingy Purdue defense. Nikola and Joe were relied on to guard Haas and Hammons and they did well enough to keep the Lobos in that game. And, as a whole, the team played with a ton of effort and intensity, making it seem like only being down by six at the half with O only playing 4 minutes set the Lobos up nicely to make a run in the second half.

And that’s exactly what they did when the half started, being led by Elijah Brown to go on a 14-4 run to take a four point lead with about 14 minutes to go. The game stayed tight for the next nine minutes, with neither team being able to stretch their lead out to more than four. Then, with about 5 minutes to go, Sam Logwood fouled out of the game with Big O joining him on the bench a minute later. Once those two were out of the game, Purdue was able to stretch their lead out to 13 and the Lobos just didn’t have enough left in the tank to come back. When everything was said and done, the Lobos walked off the court having suffered a 70-58 loss.

Players of the Game

For each game, I’m choosing my top three players of the game and giving them points (3 for first, 2 for second, and 1 for third). We’ll keep track of the points all season.

1. Elijah Brown (14 points on the season): After a relatively quiet first half, Elijah was light-out in the second. He poured in 17 points on 5-6 shooting from the field and 5-5 shooting from the free throw line, helping the Lobos keep pace with the Boilermakers. He also played some tough defense all game, shutting down whoever he was guarding. This marks Elijah’s fourth time taking the top spot in these rankings, which is indicative of how good he has been this season. As has been a recent topic of conversation, the combination of him and Cullen might be the best backcourt in the conference and should allow the Lobos to be towards the top of the conference standings.
2. Cullen Neal (8 points on the season): Cullen was basically the Lobos’ offense in the first half, scoring 13 of the team’s 23 points and chipping in a couple of assists. Purdue didn’t have much of an answer for him in the first half, so it was clear that they adjusted their game plan in the second half to take Cullen out of the game. That mostly involved his defender never giving him an inch and trying to double team him to force him to give up the ball. That has value in itself, as it allows other players to go off, like Elijah did.
3. Sam Logwood (4 points on the season): After Elijah and Cullen, it was really hard to figure out who the third player should be. Ultimately, I settled on Sam, which might seem like a strange pick if you just looked at his line. He ended up with 0 points, going 0-2 from the field, and he fouled out with five minutes left in the game. However, I couldn’t help but be impressed with how much effort and energy he played with yesterday, especially on the defensive end. With Big O in foul trouble, Sam was constantly helping the other bigs guard Purdue’s two-headed monster, which is why he picked up three of his five fouls. He also fought hard on the glass, earning all four of the rebounds that he got. I know that some fans are going to be fixated on the 0 points, but Sam’s effort was a big reason why the Lobos were able to stay in the game as long as they did.

Scattered Thoughts

• Although the Lobos struggled with the combination of Isaac Haas and A.J. Hammons, they did a really good job stopping just about everyone else. Haas and Hammons went a combined 13-22 from the field and 11-16 from the free throw line, giving them 37 points. The rest of the team went 10-40 from the field and 8-12 from the free throw line for 33 points. The defense has been really good so far this season and without many other teams left on the schedule that have bigs like Purdue, I think they’ll be able to shut down just about anyone they play.
• In our occasional freshmen watch, Nikola was pressed into 14 minutes of service because of the early foul trouble that Obij got into and I thought he did okay. He had a difficult time guarding Haas and Hammons, which was probably to be expected, and he still gets called for moving screens because he is a gigantic human being. However, he did flash some of that potential that makes his future so bright, including a nice hook shot and a 15-footer. It seemed to me like he was learning as the game went on, so I think that playing such tough competition will pay dividends in the future for him.
  Jordan Hunter got quite a bit of time in the second half and looked really comfortable with the ball, weaving his way through Purdue’s defense and picking up 3 assists in his 9 minutes. He also had a great steal off of a Purdue defensive rebound, showing some of that elite quickness that will make him so exciting to watch.
  Mathis played a somewhat quiet six minutes, not taking any shots, but I thought he played some good defense while he was in. He got a steal and a couple of defensive rebounds while not allowing his man to score. His defense is the thing that I’m most interested in, as I think that he’ll be good offensively, so if he can play good defense, he’ll justify more minutes.
• Elijah Brown picked up a technical foul for jawing with the refs at the end of the game and Coach Neal took him out of the game immediate after that, simply telling him, “Don’t worry about it.” Based on that reaction and what I heard from the fans, I like to think Elijah got that technical for all of us in the Lobo Family.

Up Next

The Lobos have a week off to get ready to play a good Northern Iowa team, which has already gone on the road to beat UNC this season. Hopefully this game will have a nice turnout, as the team could probably use this to be a classic Pit game.