It was the 12th-annual Pink Zone game at Mackey Arena and the Boilermakers wore their special edition pink uniforms. A special night for a special cause with an exciting game.
Defense was tight in the first half as the Wildcats forced 11 turnovers which helped them go on a 6-0 scoring run in the second quarter that lead to their biggest lead of 7 points with 7 minutes to go in the quarter.
The Boilermakers tightened up their defense with the help of Ae’Rianna Harris who had 3 blocked shots in the first half. The sharp shooting of Karissa McLaughlin who went 3-5 from three point land in the first half, helped the Boilermakers cut the Wildcats lead down to 2 at the half. The half time score was 29-27.
In the third quarter, the Northwestern pushed their lead to 10 points with about 6 minutes to go thanks to the shooting of their leading scorer Lindsay Pulliam, who finished with 16 points, and Abi Scheid who shot 4-6 from 3 point land for the game. From there the Boilermakers went on a 9-0 scoring run with about 2:37 left in the quarter thanks to their hot shooting. This lead to a tie at the beginning of the forth quarter.
During the forth quarter the game went back and forth down to the end. The score was tied with 4.2 seconds to go. The Purdue has the ball out of bounds with 1 second on the shot clock. Who do they go to? Their sharp shooter Karissa McLaughlin. Karissa who, must have ice water in her veins, hits the 3 pointer and the Arena erupts. Northwestern misses their attempt to send the game into overtime and Purdue pulls off the victory. Karissa McLaughlin finished the night with 28 points, hitting 9-11 three pointers giving Purdue the big win.
It was also Senior night at Mackey Arena. Seniors Nora Kiesler who was able to play a few minutes and left to a standing ovation and Abby Abel who has been named a finalist for the 2019 Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup, were honored after the game.
Next up for the Boilermakers is a road game against Penn State on Thursday and then a big game at home on the 25th against Maryland who just suffered their third loss of the season to Iowa. Maryland and Iowa are now tied for first place in the Big Ten conference. Purdue has a great shot at climbing up the standings before the Big Ten tournament next month.
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