Box Score Zach Edey's 24 points and 12 rebounds led 24
th-ranked Purdue to an 80-68 victory over West Virginia Thursday night in the Phil Knight Legacy Tournament at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon.
Â
The 7-foot-4 center made 7-of-12 from the floor and also converted 10-of-12 from the free throw line in 27 minutes of action tonight.
Â
The Boilermakers (4-0) scored the first nine points of the game and never trailed, although West Virginia cut Purdue's lead to four on
Kedrian Johnson's 3-point basket from the top of the key with 5:30 left.
Â
Purdue scored the next seven points to build its lead back to 11, and once more the Mountaineers rallied to cut it to seven on
Erik Stevenson's corner 3 with 2:29 to go. But missed layups on their next two offensive possessions by
Joe Toussaint and
Kedrian Johnson preceded Ethan Morton's basket and a Stevenson flagrant foul along the sideline that resulted in two Braden Smith free throws and an 11-point margin.
Â
The Boilermakers shot 56% in the first half before cooling off somewhat to 51% for the game, but they never cooled off at the free throw line where they converted 24 of 28 for 85.7%.
Â
West Virginia, now 4-1, came into tonight's game shooting 50.9% from the floor but successfully goaled on only 41.3% of its attempts tonight (23 of 61). The Mountaineers were also only 11-of-17 from the free throw line.
Â
Considering WVU finished even with Purdue in paint scoring (26-26) and was only out-boarded 35 to 31, the free throw line turned out to be the deciding factor in tonight's game.Â
Â
Purdue's bench also outscored West Virginia's 31 to 24.
"We were 4-0 because we were better," West Virginia head coach
Bob Huggins said. "We still didn't execute. We turned the ball over at a very alarming rate and we refused to rebound it."
Â
Stevenson finished with a team-high 17 points while going just 6-of-16 from the floor and 1-of-6 from 3-point range. Toussaint added 16 on 7-of-14 shooting and
Kedrian Johnson finished with 11 on 3-of-9 shooting.
Â
Fouls claimed starting forward
Jimmy Bell Jr. in the second half and hindered the play of starting forward
Tre Mitchell, who finished with four fouls and only one basket.
Â
A total of 10 different players got into tonight's game for West Virginia.
Â
Mason Gillis, averaging just 2.3 points per game, contributed 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting for the Boilermakers. Purdue was 8-of-17 from 3-point distance for 47.1% and its 18 turnovers only resulted in 17 Mountaineer points.
Purdue has now won eight of its nine meetings against West Virginia in a series that dates to a Dec. 28, 1961 meeting in Los Angeles.
Â
The Boilermakers advance to play the winner of tonight's second game between Gonzaga and Portland State, while West Virginia will meet the loser in the nightcap.
Â
The Mountaineers will wrap up play in Portland on Sunday.
Â