IU defeats Purdue for 1st time since 2008-09 season

Senior guard Jasmine McGhee prayed before Wednesday night’s game, and as time expired, her prayer was answered as her shot from the right wing hit nothing but net to knock off No. 22 Purdue 62-61 at Assembly Hall.

“We just knew we had to get it down the floor, and the ball just came to my hands, and it left, threw up a prayer, and it went in,” McGhee said.

After controlling the lead for most of the second half, IU found itself trailing by one with 12.6 seconds to go. Freshman guard Nicole Bell fought full court pressure and managed to find McGhee, who was the primary option on the play out of the timeout.

McGhee took a few quick dribbles to her right, and with a hand in her face, fired a mid-range jumpshot that put an end to the Hoosiers’ 10-game losing streak and eight-game losing streak to Purdue.

“We didn’t get down in the front court with as much time as we had hoped,” IU Coach Curt Miller said. “But to Jazz’s credit, some kids hide in that situation and say, ‘Hey coach, I couldn’t get the ball.’ She worked really hard to get the ball, and we asked her to make a play and she did.

“That’s not coaching. That’s players that are living in the moment and not shying away in the moment and willing to go put it on their shoulders.”

It was McGhee’s first game-winner of her career.

IU’s last win against a top 25 team came Dec. 5, 2010, against Nebraska. The last time IU beat Purdue was Jan. 19, 2009. Only one player, fifth-year senior center Sasha Chaplin, played on the team then.

“Any time you’re playing Purdue, you have that kind of edge to your game,” senior forward Aulani Sinclair said. “We knew we hadn’t won against them in a long time, and tonight, you could see it in our eyes and just the way we were playing them, we knew we’re not going to lose this in the final couple of minutes.”

McGhee led all scorers with 26 points on 11-of-17 shooting. Sinclair added 16 points.
While Miller has preached that this season is not about wins and losses, he made an exception for Wednesday’s win, as he opened by telling the media with a wide grin on his face, “That was fun.”

“It was Purdue, right?” he said. “It’s always the exception with Purdue. It’s going to be a great rivalry.”

Miller said the win came from a “perfect storm,” mentioning that the bye-week helped give rest to McGhee, Sinclair and Bell, who have played more than 90 percent of the possible minutes in the past five games.

He also said he felt the team had hit “rock bottom” after the 30-point loss at Michigan State on Feb. 13.

“You could feel it coming into this week that they wanted to get out there and prove more that what happened in East Lansing,” he said.

IU outrebounded Purdue 35-33 — a key stat, Miller said. He said he noticed watching game tape that in the first matchup in West Lafayette, which IU lost 59-42, his team limited the Boilers to missed first shots, but couldn’t finish with a rebound.

“That was very key,” Chaplin said. “All week, Coach Miller and the coaching staff preached rebounding, outrebounding, outrebounding. In our first game, that’s the reason that they pulled away and beat us was because of rebounding and turnovers. Tonight, we controlled what we could do, that’s crash the boards and rebound.”

With the game coming down to the final seconds, McGhee couldn’t help but think her praying earlier in the day paid off when she launched her jumper.

“I prayed about this game, and I think God just kind of helped us out a little bit,” she said.