- No. 4 seed and 22nd-ranked Purdue advanced to the Sweet 16 with a 76-62 victory over McNeese on Saturday afternoon. The Boilermakers move to 24-11 overall.
- The Boilermakers have now made six Sweet 16 appearances in the last eight tournaments, missing out in 2021 and 2023. Only Gonzaga (7 entering tonight's game) has more, while Houston (entering tonight) also has five.
- The Sweet 16 appearance is the eighth for head coach Matt Painter, tied for the sixth most by an active head coach.
- Purdue has won six straight games in the second round, last losing in the second round in the 2012 tournament.
- Purdue has won its two games by a combined 26 points. Over the last two seasons, Purdue has won all four of its first- and second-round games by at least 12 points (28 vs. Grambling; 39 vs. Utah State; 12 vs. High Point; 14 vs. McNeese).
- Purdue trailed for a total of 3 minutes and 8 seconds in the 80 minutes played this week in Providence.
- Purdue is now 16-7 in the NCAA Tournament since the 2016-17 season, the fourth-most NCAA Tournament wins of anyone in the country (Gonzaga – 23 (before game with Houston); Kansas – 17; North Carolina – 17 (includes this year's First Four); Duke has 16 entering tomorrow's second-round game with Baylor).
- Purdue is 9-3 in the NCAA Tournament since the start of the 2021-22 season.
- Purdue outrebounded its opponents 86-48 during the two games. Purdue had 31 offensive rebounds, while its two opponents had 34 defensive rebounds.
- Purdue's senior class (consisting of Caleb Furst) now owns a 116-30 career record. The 116 victories are tied for the third most by a senior class in Big Ten history (123 – Ohio State, 2013; 119 – Ohio State, 2014).
- Purdue is 87-22 (.798) over the last three seasons.
- Purdue's 19 turnovers were its most in an NCAA Tournament game since a 62-61 win over Dayton on March 16, 2000 (20 turnovers).
- Purdue had 17 assists on 23 made field goals.
- Purdue has won 34 straight games when holding foes under 70 points.
- Trey Kaufman-Renn scored 22 points with 15 rebounds, three assists, one steal and one block, while going 7-of-12 from the field and 8-of-10 from the free throw line. He is the first Purdue player to have at least 22 points, 15 rebounds and three assists in an NCAA Tournament game. His 15 rebounds are tied for the fifth most by a Purdue player in an NCAA Tournament game in school history.
- Kaufman-Renn has scored at least 20 points in five straight games and in 17 of his last 17 games.
- Kaufman-Renn became the eighth player in school history to have at least 700 points in a season and his 709 points now rank 10th in a single season in school history.
- Fletcher Loyer scored 15 points with five assists and one steal. Loyer went 3-of-10 from long range and the Boilermakers are now 14-0 this season when he makes at least three 3-pointers in a game. Six of those 14 games have come against NCAA Tournament teams.
- Braden Smith had 10 points, five assists, four rebounds and two steals. He moved past North Carolina State's Chris Corchiani (1997-99) into fifth place for the most assists by a player in his first three seasons (Bobby Hurley, Kay Felder, Steve Blake, Ed Cota). Smith now has 298 assists on the season.
- C.J. Cox scored 11 points with two assists. Cox reached double-figures for the first time since Feb. 15 vs. Wisconsin (span of nine games).
- Myles Colvin had eight points and six rebounds, making 2-of-6 from long range. Over his last 10 games, Colvin is 16-of-44 (.364 from deep).
- Camden Heide had five points and two rebounds, going 2-of-2 from the field. Heide is 12-of-19 (.632) from long distance in the last 10 games.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Trey Kaufman-Renn had 22 points and 15 rebounds, and Purdue used a fast start to roll to a 76-62 win over McNeese in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday.
Fletcher Loyer added 15 points. C.J. Cox finished with 11 points for the Boilermakers (24-11), who advanced through the Midwest Region to the Sweet 16 for the second straight season.
Purdue will meet the winner of top-seeded Houston and eighth-seeded Gonzaga in the regional semifinal. In his 16 NCAA Tournament appearances with the Boilermakers, coach Matt Painter is now headed to his eighth Sweet 16.
Painter said the challenge is to sustain the offensive output they've had over the first two rounds.
"We can't go further without playing great offensively," Painter said. "We have to execute well, we have to shoot the ball well. That's not really pressure, that's just a fact."
Sincere Parker had 17 points to lead McNeese (28-7). Javohn Garcia added 12 points as the Cowboys came up short in their bid to give the Southland Conference its first Sweet 16 team since Louisiana Tech in 1985.
McNeese came out in the 2/3 zone that was so successful during its first-round win over Clemson.
But Purdue hit 7 of its first 9 field goals and 3 of its first 4 3-point attempts to build an early double-digit advantage. A pair of three-plus minute scoring droughts by the Cowboys and runs of 10-0 and 9-0 by the Boilermakers helped Purdue grow its lead as high as 36-14 in the first half.
"From the start of the game they kind of imposed their will on us," Parker said. "To their credit they made shots and we missed shots."
The Boilermakers led for all but 19 seconds.
Purdue shot 11 of 26 from the 3-point line for the game and held a 41-24 rebounding edge.
"I thought we played really well these last two games," Kaufman-Renn said. "We executed well and we stuck to our game plan and then we outrebounded both teams. So we do that, it's a winning game plan."
Takeaways
McNeese: Poor shooting prevented the Cowboys from duplicating their first-round magic.
Purdue: A year after making it to the national title game, the Boilermakers are getting some of their best production from Braden Smith and Kaufman-Renn, who both started in that game.
Up next
As good as Purdue was offensively against the Cowboys, the Boilermakers will likely have to lean on their defense in the next round. Gonzaga entered the tournament with Division I's second-ranked scoring offense. Houston was the nation's fifth-ranked 3-point shooting team.
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