Achi news desk-
Glendale, Ariz.
Purdue kept its March Madness dream alive while holding off North Carolina State, getting 20 points and 12 rebounds from Zach Eddy in a 63-50 victory Saturday that put the Boilermakers one win away from their first NCAA title.
NC State attacked and pounded the 7-foot-4 Addy and gave him fits during his 40 minutes on the floor, but he still dominated the big man battle against 6-9, 275-pound Wolfpack forward DJ Burns Jr. Worked on eight points and four assists. DJ Horn led the 11th-ranked Wolfpack with 20 points.
Purdue (34-4) advances to Monday night’s final to play the winner of a later game between Alabama and defending champion UConn. NC State (26-15) ended its two-game winning streak that would not repeat 1983, going through nine consecutive must-win games to capture one of the most improbable titles in history.
Some might also call this run by top-seeded Purdue improbable. The program is in the Final Four for the first time since 1980, just one season after becoming the second seed to fall in the first round.
“That’s the one we’ve been talking about all year,” said Eddy, who bounced back for his senior season after last year’s disappointment. “This is what we’ve been talking about for four years, to be able to play this, to accept this challenge.”
Eddie’s team and coach Matt Painter have taken advantage of every challenge so far. They did it this time despite a three-point night from their second leading scorer, Brayden Smith, who went 1-for-9 (but finished with eight rebounds and six assists).
He wasn’t the only one who couldn’t buy a bucket. NC State, which outscored Duke 55-37 after halftime in the Elite Eight, shot 28.6 percent in the final 20 minutes — a stretch that included plenty of open looks that just wouldn’t fall.
“The biggest difference is some of the shots we normally make we didn’t make in this game,” Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts said. “It kind of got away from us a little bit.”
It created some ugly circles. At one point early in the second half, the teams missed 10 consecutive shots between them.
“Obviously it was one of those grinder games,” Painter said.
Despite all of Smith’s struggles, he put the final dagger in NC State’s season.
It came at the end of a stretch in which Horne shot an aerial shot and Eddy knocked NC State guard Jaden Taylor’s shot out of the paint, while on the other end, Fletcher Loyer and then Smith made back-to-back 3-pointers.
It was part of an 8-0 run that pushed Purdue’s lead to 20. The only remaining drama was whether the Wolfpack would surpass their season low of 52 points. they are not.
Eddy, the AP backcourt player of the year, had his 29th double-double of the season. But it wasn’t an easy stroll through the paint for the nation’s leading scorer. NC State finished with eight steals. Most of them came from guards who dropped on Eddie and replaced him.
Burns got along with Eddie. Wolfpack forward Ben Middlebrook did even better. In the end, Eddie was just too hard to deal with. He blocked two shots, altered about five others and his interior presence played into NC State’s 36 percent shooting night.
Eddie also had four assists.
“Whenever your best player is unselfish, everybody just lines up,” Painter said.
