A little below the leading trio made up of Illinois, Wisconsin and Purdue (all three with 10 wins and 3 losses before yesterday), at the top of the Big Ten conference, Michigan struck a blow last night by offering itself the scalp of the Boilermakers. And this, in large widths (82-58).
The Big Ten was in any case aptly named last night with a duel of mammoths in the paint, between Hunter Dickinson (22 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists) and Zach Edey (10 points, 6 rebounds) on the one hand but also between the Frenchy Moussa Diabaté (15 points, 4 rebounds) and Trevion Williams (12 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists).
The sophomore interior of Michigan got the better of his Canadian counterpart from Purdue, notably admiring his left 3-point paw with a very good 4/6 behind the arc. In another register, sharper and more explosive towards the circle, Diabaté also contributed a lot, scoring 13 of his 15 points in the first half.
Juwan Howard’s Wolverines made the difference just before the break before playing out the rest of the game, forcing 14 stray balls from Purdue who were also outplayed in the rebound battle (35-25).
“When you’re beaten on the rebounds like that, and you have twice as many stray balls as the opponent, and what’s more, you don’t have a lot of skill, then you have to be really, really good in defense to give himself a chance to win the game. And obviously we weren’t.” regretted Matt Painter, the Purdue coach. “When you add it all up, the poor shooting percentages, twice as many stray shots and 10 fewer rebounds, and also the errors on defense, it makes sense to bow heavily. “
In addition to Dickinson and Diabaté who cleaned up the racket, Caleb Houstan (14 points) but especially Eli Brooks (18 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists) also had a great game, accumulating an excellent 8/10 at 3-points between them (12/16 if we add the 4 of Dickinson).
Opposite, Jaden Ivey (18 points, 3 rebounds, 5 stray bullets) was the Boilermakers’ best player but, like a nasty fall on his back after a huge block from Dickinson, his evening was rather painful …
Gonzaga shines for 65th straight home win
Under the eyes of Jalen Suggs, passing through the Northwest with the Magic, the Gonzaga Bulldogs made short work of Pacific (89-51).
It’s the usual fare for the Zags against opponents in their West Coast conference, which they have outrageously dominated for four years, with a 65th consecutive victory at home and a 13th victory in a row overall.
Senior guard Rasir Bolton, transfer from Iowa State, was the most prominent player with 20 points, followed closely by Julian Strawther’s 15 points, Chet Holmgren’s 14 and Drew Timme’s 13 points. Gonzaga simply took the Tigers by the throat from the start, with an initial 26-10 over the first 9 minutes of play, then 46-28 at the break, holding Pacific at 37% success including a tiny 1 /13 behind the arc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po6TYNToS-c
Arizona en route to Pac-12 title
Hooked at the start of the match, Arizona showed its talent afterwards, with Bennedict Mathurin (20 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists) and Azuola Tubeilis (15 points) who made the difference for a great victory at Pullman against Washington State (72-60). It’s the fifth straight victory for the Wildcats, who are simply making their best start to the season (11 wins in 12 Pac-12 conference games) since 2016-17.
With an easy schedule ahead, and 4 of their 7 home games, Arizona is quietly heading towards the conference regular season title. Apart from Oregon, which had started its season badly, it is not the teams of Los Angeles, nor UCLA nor USC a notch below, which should be able to dispute it…
The main results of the evening
Gonzaga–Pacific (89-51)
Michigan–Purdue (82-58)
Washington State–Arizona (60-72)
Clemson–Duke (64-82)
St. Mary’s–San Diego (86-57)
Tennessee State–Murray State (62-73)
