Purdue ends McNeese’s March Madness run 76-62 to get back to Sweet 16

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.

Coach Wade on the move?

McNeese coach Will Wade declined to confirm whether he had accepted the coaching job at N.C. State, but a source told The Associated Press a deal had been reached. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the school hasn’t publicly discussed its coaching search.

Wade said he’d spend Saturday celebrating what McNeese accomplished this season.

“I’ll worry about that tomorrow,” Wade said. “Look, I’m an honest guy but today I want to put a bow on everything with McNeese if we can. That’ll be up to whatever else happens.”

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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AP Basketball Writer Aaron Beard in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed to this report.

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