NCAA BB  FINAL               1ST 2ND     TOTAL
                             --- ---     -----
         BUTLER               30  44       74
         PURDUE               32  36       68    FINAL

 HIGH SCORERS:  BUTLER - RYLAN HAINJE 25, THOMAS JACKSON 21,
                BRANDON MILLER 7
                PURDUE - MAYNARD LEWIS 18, WILLIE DEANE 17,
                DARMETREIS KILGORE 13

 HIGH REBOUND:  BUTLER - RYLAN HAINJE 7, TWO PLAYERS WITH 6
                PURDUE - RODNEY SMITH 10, DARMETREIS KILGORE 6

 HIGH ASSISTS:  BUTLER - THOMAS JACKSON 6, THREE PLAYERS WITH 2
                PURDUE - WILLIE DEANE 3, TWO PLAYERS WITH 2

          ATT:  13,436
                                                                        

Box Score

BUTLER (74)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Cornette        30   3-6   0-0   2-5  1  4    6
Hainje          34  8-17   5-8   3-7  2  3   25
Robisch         28   3-7   0-1   3-6  0  4    6
Miller          36  3-10   0-0   1-6  2  0    7
Jackson         39  8-12   4-4   0-3  6  4   21
Archey          12   3-4   0-0   0-1  0  0    6
Monserez        18   1-5   0-0   1-1  2  0    3
Walls            1   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
Curry            2   0-1   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 29-62  9-13 10-29 13 15   74
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.468, FT-.692. 3-Point Goals:
7-23, .304 (Hainje 4-8, Miller 1-6, Jackson 1-3,
Archey 0-1, Monserez 1-5). Team rebounds: None.
Blocked shots: 1 (Robisch). Turnovers: 10 (Hainje
3, Cornette 2, Curry, Jackson, Miller, Monserez,
Robisch). Steals: 10 (Robisch 4, Hainje 2, Miller
2, Monserez 2).

PURDUE (68)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Smith           35   1-9   2-2  2-10  1  3    4
Kilgore         31  4-12   3-4   0-6  0  2   13
Allison         26   4-7   2-2   2-4  1  3   10
Deane           26  6-10   5-7   0-3  3  4   17
Lewis           35   7-9   2-2   2-4  1  0   18
Buscher         16   1-1   2-2   2-3  2  2    4
Mcknight        17   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  2    0
Marshall        11   1-1   0-0   0-1  2  1    2
Carroll          1   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
Garrity          2   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 24-49 16-19  8-31 10 17   68
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.490, FT-.842. 3-Point Goals:
4-15, .267 (Smith 0-5, Kilgore 2-6, Deane 0-1,
Lewis 2-3). Team rebounds: 1. Blocked shots: 4
(Smith, Allison, Deane, Mcknight). Turnovers: 18
(Deane 3, Kilgore 3, Lewis 3, Smith 3, Buscher 2,
Marshall 2, Mcknight). Steals: 5 (Deane, Kilgore,
Lewis, Marshall, Smith).
__________________________________
Butler             30   44  -   74
Purdue             32   36  -   68
__________________________________
Technical fouls: None.  A: 13,436. Officials: A
Mcdonald, Tom Clark, Sid Rodeheffer.
                                                                        

DAVE'S POSTGAME ANALYSIS

PLAYERS OF THE GAME: the seniors, Hainje and Jackson. Rylan finished with a game-high 25 points, and pulled down 7 rebounds. He was 4-for-8 from 3-point range and had a pair of steals. Thomas broke down Purdue's defense all night, cutting straight to the hole for numerous lay-ups. He had 21 points, 6 assists, and 3 rebounds with just one turnover. And as previously mentioned, he hit four big free throws to put the game away.

Hainje and Jackson stole the show, but they certainly had some help. Brandon Miller struggled to a 3-for-10 night from the field, but hit a pair of important baskets during the comeback, including a big three. He finished with 7 points and 6 rebounds, much to the dismay of the "Gene Pool", the Purdue student section which spent a portion of the evening chanting "Miller sucks!" Scott Robisch added 6 points, 6 rebounds, 4 steals and a block. He also had a big bucket in the lane down the stretch. Joel Cornette finished with 6 points and 5 boards. Darnell Archey had 6 big points in the second half, but none of them came from downtown. For the second straight game, Darnell had no 3-pointers, but did a fantastic job of scoring off the dribble drive. Mike Monserez continued to struggle, but the one shot he did hit was a big 3-pointer. Purdue was led by Maynard Lewis with 18 points and Willie Deane with 17 points.

The Bulldogs seemed very tight at the beginning of the game, which can surely be chalked up to an excess of adrenaline. They fought back to within 2, only to see the deficit push back out to 14. But rather than give up, they dug in that much deeper and did what they needed to do to get the win in a hostile environment. The Purdue radio team noted that throughout the night, Butler's demeanor on the court never changed. They never looked like a team that was down 14 on the road. That may be the biggest difference between this team and prior Butler teams--you can never count them out. They are much tougher mentally than they've been before, and there isn't a team that they'll back down from. The scary thing is that if they would have played a full 40 minutes at the level at which they ended each half, they could have won handily. And much of the reason that Butler struggled was due to Purdue's defense. The Boilers came out much more agressively to start each half than Butler did, but had trouble maintaining that level of intensity for 20 minutes. The Bulldogs finished 5-of-8 from the three-point line down the stretch after starting 2-of-15. They forced 18 Purdue turnovers and only committed 10, and outscored the Boilers 39-19 to end the game. A great win for a great team.