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Purdue Basketball: Boilermakers fight back to knock off Notre Dame

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 9:09 p.m. ET

Fansided, Lukas Harkins/FanSided via Busting Brackets

Despite trailing by 14 points at halftime, Purdue basketball fought hard in the second half to defeat 21st ranked Notre Dame.

	1	2	T
Boilermakers	38	48	86
Fighting Irish	52	29	81

After both teams lost in last year’s Crossroads Classic, Purdue and Notre Dame were out for vengeance in this battle. Purdue took a tough loss to Butler as both teams were ranked at this point last season, while Notre Dame suffered a defeat at the hands of the Indiana Hoosiers, who crawled back from being down 14 points at half.

This year was no different for Notre Dame.

The Boilermakers gave up 52 points in the first half, and it took a tremendous effort on both ends of the court to overcome their halftime deficit. Purdue used outstanding performances from Caleb Swanigan (26 points, 10 rebounds) and Vince Edwards (20 points, 10 rebounds off the bench) to carry them in the second half and lead the team to an 86-71 victory.

In the first half, it was all Notre Dame, who at one point held a lead of 17 points. Notre Dame relied on Bonzie Colson (23 points, 10 rebounds) and Matt Farrell (22 points, 10 assists), who both had excellent games.

However, it was their bench who let them down. ND’s bench was outscored by 15 throughout the game, 29-14, and it proved to be the difference.

On top of their poor bench play, the Irish were destroyed on the boards and at the free throw line. Purdue ended the game with a +10 rebounding advantage and also made 12 more free throws.

Moving forward, Notre Dame (9-2) gets one day of rest after this game before taking on Colgate at home for a chance to get back on track after back-to-back losses to ranked opponents. As for Purdue (9-2), they also just get one night of rest before taking on Western Illinois.

As one of the last marquee non-conference games of the season, Purdue notched their best non-conference victory as they look to shoot up the rankings prior to the beginning of Big Ten play next month.