- No. 4 seed Purdue saw its season end with a 24-12 record in a 62-60 loss to top-seeded Houston on Friday night in Indianapolis.
- The loss prevents Purdue from making its second straight Elite Eight for the first time in school history.
- Since the 2016-17 season, Purdue is now 16-8 in eight NCAA Tournament appearances, the sixth-most NCAA Tournament wins in the country during that span.
- Purdue is now 0-9 all-time against No. 1 seeds.
- Purdue lost for the first time this year when holding its opponent under 70 points, finishing the year with a 14-1 record. Purdue had won 35 straight games when holding foes under 70 points.
- Caleb Furst played in his 141st career game on Friday, tying a school record.
- Braden Smith scored seven points with 15 assists and three rebounds. He finished the year with 567 points, 313 assists and 162 rebounds. He joins Murray State's Ja Morant (2018-19) as the only players in NCAA history with 550 points, 300 assists and 150 rebounds in a season.
- Smith becomes the first player in NCAA Tournament history to have two games of 15 or more assists in a career. He also had 15 in the 2024 Sweet 16 contest against Gonzaga.
- Purdue had 11 field goals in the second half. Smith had an assist on every field goal that Purdue made in the second half.
- Smith now has 1,375 points, 758 assists and 535 rebounds in his career, in 110 career games. Smith's 758 assists through his junior season are the third most by a player in NCAA history (Bobby Hurley – 814; Kay Felder – 788).
- Smith has 23 career games of 10 or more assists, tied for the second most by a player in the last 20 seasons in his first three seasons.
- Smith set a school record with 1,333 minutes played, surpassing his record set a year ago with 1,327 minutes played.
- Trey Kaufman-Renn scored 14 points and finished his season ranked 10th in points by a Purdue player in a season with 723.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Houston spent time this week practicing an inbound play that coach Kelvin Sampson thought his team might need against Purdue.
Milos Uzan, the third option, ran it to perfection.
He tossed the ball to Joseph Tugler, who threw a bounce pass right back to Uzan, and the 6-foot-4 guard soared to the rim for an uncontested layup with 0.9 seconds left, giving the top-seeded Cougars a 62-60 victory — and a matchup with second-seeded Tennessee in Sunday's Elite Eight.
"Great execution at a time we needed that," said Sampson, who is a win away from making his third Final Four and his second with Houston in five years. "You never know when you're going to need it."
The Cougars (33-4) made only one other basket over the final eight minutes, wasted a 10-point lead and then missed two more shots in the final 5 seconds. A replay review with 2.2 seconds left confirmed Houston would keep the ball when it rolled out of bounds after the second miss.
Uzan took over from there.
"I was trying to hit (L.J. Cryer) and then JoJo just made a great read," Uzan said. "He was able to draw two (defenders) and he just made a great play to hit me back."
Houston advanced to the Elite Eight for the third time in five years after falling in the Sweet 16 as a top seed in the previous two editions of March Madness. It will take the nation's longest winning streak, 16 games, into Sunday's Midwest Region final.
The Cougars joined the other three No. 1 seeds in this year's Elite Eight and did it at Lucas Oil Stadium, where their 2021 tourney run ended with a loss in the Final Four to eventual national champion Baylor.
They haven't lost since Feb. 1.
Uzan scored 22 points and Emanuel Sharp had 17 as Houston survived an off night from leading scorer Cryer, who finished with five points on 2-of-13 shooting.
Houston still had to sweat out a half-court heave at the buzzer, but Braden Smith's shot was well off the mark.
Fletcher Loyer scored 16 points, Trey Kaufman-Renn had 14 and Smith, the Big Ten player of the year, added seven points and 15 assists for fourth-seeded Purdue (24-12). Smith assisted on all 11 second-half baskets for last year's national runner-up, which played in front of a friendly crowd about an hour's drive from its campus in West Lafayette.
"I thought we fought really hard and we dug down defensively to get those stops to come back," Smith said. "We did everything we could and we just had a little miscommunication at the end and they converted. Props to them."
Houston appeared on the verge of disaster when Kaufman-Renn scored on a dunk and then blocked Cryer's shot with 1:17 to go, leading to Camden Heide's 3 that tied the score at 60 with 35 seconds left.
Sampson called timeout to set up the final play, but Uzan missed a turnaround jumper and Tugler's tip-in rolled off the rim and out of bounds. The Cougars got one more chance after the replay review.
Sharp's scoring flurry early in the second half finally gave Houston some separation after a back-and-forth first half. His 3-pointer at the 16:14 mark made it 40-32. After Purdue trimmed the deficit to four, Uzan made two 3s to give Houston a 10-point lead in a tough, physical game that set up a rare dramatic finish in this year's tourney.
Takeaways
Purdue: Coach Matt Painter's Boilermakers stumbled into March Madness with six losses in their final nine games but proved themselves a worthy competitor by fighting their way into the Sweet 16 and nearly taking down a No. 1 seed.
Houston: The Cougars lead the nation in 3-point percentage and scoring defense, an enviable combination.