Purdue Fort Wayne Beats Purdue in an Instant Classic

Fort Wayne, Indiana – The home crowd was live and well in the Mastodons’ home opener against “Big Sister”, the Purdue Boilermakers. The largest crowd at the Hilliard Gates Sports Center since 2019 was in for a show between a team looking for their first win and a team looking to impose their will on the lesser brand. The Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons (1-2) defeated the Purdue Boilermakers (2-1) thanks in part to a stone cold, step back three-pointer from freshman Rylee Bess with 5.7 seconds to put the Mastodons ahead and stay ahead for the 68-67 victory on Wednesday. In a complete 180 from the games before, the Mastodon defense looked suffocating. The offense looked rhythmic. And the team looked the most complete is has all season. The stars were aligned for the Mastodons, and the Mastodons’ stars both new and ‘old’ shined bright in the biggest moments. Poetically, the newly unveiled WNIT Great 8 banner hung from the balcony reminding the new Mastodon squad what is possible with the right amount of grittiness, hard work, teamwork, trust and togetherness – all on full display tonight.

First Quarter: The Purdue Fort Wayne portal grab named Lili Krasovec proved to be a splash hit early and often throughout this game. The former ACC player showcased why her power conference experience could be valuable to the Mastodon team. After winning the jump ball, Krasovec started the game with a 10-foot jump shot from the left baseline over Purdue’s Lana McCarthy. Fortunately for the Mastodon faithful, this would be a sign of good things to come. Alana Nelson continued to be a problem for defenses with the green light. Her first of six baskets on the night would be a nice drive with a spin move over and around Purdue’s Madison Layden-Zay. On a made basket, the Boilermakers looked to take a page out of the West Virginia gameplan by full court pressing and trapping the Mastodons guards. This appeared to be the key as it sped up the ‘Dons and forced them to cough it up a few times. The Mastodons did just enough to keep it close though they could never really pull away.

The defensive intensity for the ‘Dons was cranked up to 10 from the start, looking to find their identity and to “be better”. When Purdue would get the ball into the post at least two if not three Mastodon defenders would swarm down and get their hands on the ball forcing a kick out. Perimeter passes were often tipped or even picked off the other way. With just over two minutes to go, the Mastodons forced yet another turnover, and with the Boilermakers’ big, McCarthy, on the bench, the ‘Dons looked to take advantage. Nelson would use her quickness to get around her defender, Kendall Puryear, and on the next possession she would drill a three in the face of Puryear ending McCarthy’s brief break on the bench. PFW shot 9-for-15 (60%) in the first quarter to take a 20-17 at the end of the first 10 minutes.

Second Quarter: With the Boilermakers three-point shooting woes, the Mastodons came out of the quarter break in a 3-2 zone to give a look defensively. Purdue’s new star guard, Hila Karsh, took a few seconds, but easily dissected the holes in the zone for a basket. After a dead ball, the Boilermakers turned to 6-7 C Avery Gordon to guard Krasovec. A few minutes into play, Krasovec and Gordon got tied up on a rebound, and Gordon came out of the scuffle holding her shoulder and elbow looking like it was hyperextended over the shoulder of Krasovec. Even worse for the Boilermakers, in all of this, Gordon inadvertently clocked her own teammate, Tara Daye, with an elbow to the cheek. Daye was the leading scorer in the game at the time with 9 points. She would not return to play in the remainder of the half.

The break in the action allowed the ‘Dons to reset and catch their breath to set up a fierce half court trapping press. The press forced a loose ball where multiple players from both teams hit the deck scrambling for possession. After the media timeout, the Mastodons went on a 7-0 run with help from Nelson and Jordan Reid both running the floor well for easy transition buckets and a three-pointer from sharpshooter Bess to put the ‘Dons ahead by five, 29-26. The remainder of the quarter went back and forth with the two teams trading baskets and turnovers. The Mastodons clamped down for the final thirty seconds causing Purdue to force up a desperation heave at the buzzer that never had a chance. PFW’s Lauren Lee, Bailee Duck, Destiny Macharia, and Bess all played tremendous on-ball defense all game, really pestering the Boilermaker backcourt. Vibes were high in the Gates Center as the Mastodons were leading the Boilermakers at the half 32-31.

Third Quarter: The power conference experience of Krasovec’s time in the ACC started to play dividends after the break. Krasovec showed the Boilermakers that she was not one to be taken lightly as she played great defense getting a deflection and steal on an entry pass to McCarthy. On the other end, Krasovec received the ball down low and with a quick post dribble and drop step, she was able to get around McCarthy for the shot. She would get fouled on the attempt and would make both free throws following. From here, every shot that Purdue would make, PFW would have an answer. After a monitor review from the referees to determine if Purdue touched a ball before heading out of bounds (they didn’t), the Boilermakers took their largest lead of the game of six with a three by Karsh and a steal by Kiki Smith on the PFW inbound leading to a Daye layup bringing the score to 41-35.

Krasovec would put the mini-run to a halt with a basket underneath the hoop after using nearly all the time on the shot clock. Then Nelson and Reid would both make layups through non-called contact to knot the game back up at 41-41. Bess and Reid would make eerily similar defensive plays on back-to-back Purdue possessions by reading a pass at the top of the key, tipping it out into the backcourt, and outrunning Purdue to a fast break layup. Smith and Karsh would give the lead back to the Boilermakers with a made three each before a Nelson hoop and harm and two Lee free throws tie the game at 51. Purdue would get the last swing of the third round with a few Mastodons tripping over their feet in the paint leaving McCarthy wide open for the layup. Purdue would take a slim 53-51 lead into the final frame of action.

Fourth Quarter: The final frame of the game did not lack the theatrics that the first 30 minutes had. The Boilermakers had the Purdue Fort Wayne sets scouted well as aparant by the entire bench shouting “BACKDOOR! BACKDOOR!” – however, sometimes no amount of scouting can prepare you for elite athleticism. Reid cut backdoor on her defender and received a pass in the lane where she was hit in the air, giving her two chances at the line where she would it the first and put the second a little long. Off of the missed free throw, Daye would grab the rebound and bring it the length of the court for a layup attempt that would end with Daye on the floor, Krasovec standing over her, and the ball in Reid’s hands going the other way on a volleyball swat. The final quarter of the game became a three-person (eventually a fourth person) game between Karsh and the tandem of Krasovec and Reid. Those three players combined scored 20 of the 31 points in the final frame. The final 30 seconds of the game was where a new Fort Wayne legend was born.

All game, the PFW guards were tormenting the ball handlers of Purdue with clamping on-ball defense. Freshman Bess was tasked and trusted with doing the same in the final seconds with the Mastodons down two desperately needing a stop. Digging deep, taking a shot off a screen and fighting back to contest, the Purdue Fort Wayne defense forced a desperation shot at the shot clock buzzer by Smith that missed and fell into the hands of Lee. Timeout Mastodons.

With 17 seconds left and down two points, Maria Marchesano had to decide if they wanted a hero to win the game with a three or try to survive into another frame with a closer shot. Marchesano revealed in the postgame interview that the designed play was to go to Krasovec. She had been lighting up the Boilermakers down low, and with McCarthy on the bench for Purdue, Krasovec had every right and chance to go for the tying shot. Once inbounded, Lee brought the ball in front of the Mastodon bench where she would find Krasovec in the post as planned. Then as Krasovec started to dribble, Lee’s defender would crash in along with another Boilermaker defender to triple team Krasovec in the post. A double team means someone has to be open. A triple team means that someone has to be very open. With poise, Krasovec looked up to find Bess just left of the top of the key. She kicked out the pass to Bess who would get the charging defender in the air with a pump fake, take one dribble in, step back, and release – mayhem. Bess buried the step back triple with 5.7 seconds left in the game to take a 68-67 lead.

The Boilermakers quickly called a timeout to advance the ball with a chance to play spoiler to this unlikely story. But the ‘Dons defense stepped up once again as Krasovec would step up in the lane, contesting a shot straight up, forcing the shot to land five feet short of the basket right into Reid’s hands. Ball game. Purdue Fort Wayne had done the unthinkable by defending home turf against the flag ship and making a claim as the premiere Purdue women’s basketball team.

Stats and Leaders: The Boilermakers didn’t have a necessarily bad game offensively. They were led in scoring by freshman Karsh who knows how to fill up the score sheet. The Israeli was averaging 18.0 PPG coming into the contest and leaves still averaging 18.0 PPG with her 18 points coming on 6-for-12 from the floor and a perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line. Marchesano gave props to Karsh, acknowledging that the gameplan couldn’t be to stop her, but to only contain her. Karsh was held to a mere two points in the first half. Smith added 16 points and Daye chipped in 13 even with missing some minutes with injury. The ‘Dons did a tremendous job at keeping McCarthy from taking over this game like she did last year. She ended the game with only eight points (18 last year) and two rebounds (10 last year, including seven offensive). As a team, the Boilermakers shot 27-for-57 (47.4%) from the floor, 7-for-23 (30.4%) from three, and won the rebounding battle 36-23 for a +13 margin. The press seemed to rattle PFW a bit, and Smith benefitted from that recording a game high five steals.

The Purdue Fort Wayne offense did just enough to stay within arms reach of the Boilermakers all night and to take the game in the closing seconds. The Mastodons were led in scoring by Jordan Reid who finished the game with a game-high 21 points on 8-for-16 shooting. Reid also stepped up big in the rebounding game notching seven of those. Other big contributors for the ‘Dons were Krasovec with 15 points, including seven coming at the free throw line late in the clutch. Nelson was just behind her with 14 points on 6-for-13 shooting. The hero of the night, Bess, only had eight points with three of those being the loudest three points in a long time at the Gates Sports Center. Defensively, the ‘Dons were recharged and ready to create some chaos. Purdue Fort Wayne forced 24 Boilermaker turnovers. Those turnovers resulted in 24 points for the ‘Dons. In contrast, the Boilermakers were only able to cash in nine points due to turnovers. The starters earned their playing time as well – four of the five starters played at least 34 minutes with Reid being the ironwoman going 39 minutes.

The game was close all night. The largest lead of the game was six by the Boilermakers early in the third quarter. The Mastodons’ largest lead was five in the first half. The score was tied 18 times through the game and there were 14 lead changes. This was the Mastodons first win in eight attempts over the Boilermakers and their second ever program win over a Big Ten school. Marchesano now holds a win over a Big Ten (Purdue), Big 12 (Cincinnati), and Big East (Butler) program.

What’s Next: The Purdue Boilermakers continue their road trip to face the No. 23 Kentucky Wildcats on Tuesday, November 18th in Lexington, Kentucky. The game is scheduled to start at 7:00 pm ET and will be broadcasted on the SEC Network.

The Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons look to ride the momentum into their first mid-major matchup of the season against the Southern Illinois Salukis on Saturday, November 15 in a double-header with the men’s basketball team. The game is scheduled to be played at the Gates Sports Center after the men’s game. The scheduled start time is 5:00 pm ET and will be broadcasted on ESPN+.