Golden Gophers Stuff Purdue

Williams Arena saved Minnesota one final time Thursday night. Now it's up to the Golden Gophers to save themselves.

Rebounding from its abysmal performance in Tuesday's loss at No. 23 Purdue, Minnesota revived its shaky NCAA tournament hopes with a crucial 62-48 victory over the Boilermakers.

It was a typical Jekyll-and-Hyde performance for the Gophers, who have been awful on the road and tough to beat in the raucous 71-year-old arena known as the Barn.

"I think everyone in the building knew with 10 minutes to go that it was crucial," said Big Ten scoring leader Quincy Lewis, who led Minnesota with 27 points and 10 rebounds in his last Big Ten home game. "That's the way we came into the game, and that's the way we played."

Tied 39-39 with 12:28 remaining, the Gophers (16-9, 7-8 Big Ten) held Purdue to two baskets the rest of the way for a win they badly needed after dropping four of their previous five games.

That included Tuesday's 54-42 loss at Purdue in a makeup of a game postponed by bad weather last month. The Gophers committed a season-high 25 turnovers in that loss, and also set season lows for points and field goals.

Lewis also had a season-low 13 points in that game, but he matched that by halftime Thursday. After shooting 5-for-12 at Purdue, Lewis was 10-for-19 in the rematch.

"I wanted to come out and show that you might get me once, but you won't get me twice," said Lewis, who has scored at least 20 points in 11 of his last 12 games.

Thanks to his perormance Thursday, a win Saturday at Northwestern in the final regular-season game might be enough to get Minnesota into the NCAA and avoid the unwanted prospect of defending the NIT championship it won last year.

But the Gophers are just 1-6 on the road in conference games (6-2 at home). If they don't make the NCAA the Gophers probably will return to Williams Arena for at least their first NIT game.

"That's something I don't want to do," Minnesota's Miles Tarver said. "I'd be very upset if we went there again."

Kevin Clark, one of four seniors honored before the game, scored 16 points.

The Boilermakers knew they would see a completely different Minnesota team than the one they embarrassed in West Lafayette on Tuesday. They just couldn't do anything about it.

"We knew that they were going to be better than they were on the road," coach Gene Keady said. "We knew it was Senior Night and the odds were against us. They've always been better here than they are on the road, and we emphasized that."

Purdue (19-10, 7-8) trailed only 31-29 at the half, but shot 5-for-20 in the second half. The Boilermakers also committed 10 of their 18 turnovers in the second half while the Gophers turned the ball over just four times after the break and 10 times for the night.

"We played with them for a while, and then we self-destructed," said Alan Eldridge, who shut Lewis down on Tuesday but couldn't stop him again. "We lost control."

Jaraan Cornell led the Boilermakers with 16 points and Brian Cardinal added 10. Purdue finishes the regular season at home Sunday against conference champion Michigan State.

The game was tied 39-39 when Cardinal scored on a tip-in with 12:28 left, but the Boilermakers missed 11 of 13 shots the rest of the way and Minnesota used a 16-5 run to open a 55-44 lead with 4:41 left.

Two freshmen, Joel Przybilla and walk-on Dusty Rychart, sparked the Gophers' run.

Przybilla started the run with a jumper, and he later scored on an alley-oop pass from Rychart and fed Lewis for a 3-pointer. Rychart capped the run with a steal and a baseline jumper to make it 50-42.

Greg McQuay for Purdue to make it 50-44, but Lewis answered with a 3-pointer and a jumper. The 3-pointer came after Rychart knocked a rebound out to Lewis, and the jumper came off a pass from Przybilla to give the Gophers their biggest lead of the night to that point.

After holding Minnesota scoreless for the final five minutes Tuesday, the Boilermakers scored just one point in the final 4:18 on Thursday.

"Somebody's got to step forward and handle the ball and run the offense the way we do in practice," Keady said. "I don't know what we're doing, and I'm the head coach."

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