Purdue vs Michigan State Basketball Recap

Purdue 76, Michigan State 64

When a college basketball team's season is on the line, there's no 10-year NBA veteran who can ride to the rescue. When a group of student athletes is trying to stay afloat in the midst of a trying, taxing campaign, someone has to show uncommon poise and composure in order to make a brighter tomorrow possible.

Tuesday night in East Lansing, Mich., it was the Purdue Boilermakers whose season hung in the balance, and E'Twaun Moore simply refused to accept a defeat that would have crushed his ballclub's soul.

There's no need to focus on any other aspect of this highly-touted tilt at the Breslin Center on the Michigan State campus. Yes, Kalin Lucas - the star guard for the Spartans - displayed a remarkable amount of guts in playing through an ankle injury. Yes, Purdue's JaJuan Johnson and Robbie Hummel were solid once again for Coach Matt Painter. Yes, Michigan State was flat for most of the game, and sure, forward Raymar Morgan did not give Spartan coach Tom Izzo the energy and commitment that were needed on a night when Lucas just wasn't fully healthy, but all those realities paled in comparison to what Moore - a 6-4 junior from East Chicago, Ind. - managed to produce in the final four and a half minutes of regulation.

Purdue - who once owned a 55-37 bulge over a dispirited and downcast group of Spartans (they're waiting for Lucas to heal) with 15:19 left in regulation - watched Sparty climb within three points, at 65-62, with 4:34 left. Lucas poured forth leadership and inspiration for Michigan State, and his Spartan teammates, Delvon Roe and Chris Allen, helped spearhead a desperate push that enabled the home team to craft a 25-10 run that turned an 18-point laugher into a one-possession game. Purdue - one will recall - blew a large, late lead at home against Ohio State on Jan. 12, in a loss that sent the Boilermakers reeling. If the boys from West Lafayette, Ind., could not hold on in East Lansing, they would have absorbed a devastating psychological blow.

It was essential for Purdue to show - not to the country, but to its own close-knit family - that it could close down a tough opponent. A loss would have likely carried substantial repercussions and shaken a teams intent on reaching a home-state Final Four in Indianapolis. One collapse against Ohio State was bad enough; a second breakdown against Michigan State would have been too much to bear. The season - and the mentality of that Black and Gold huddle - truly hung in the balance when Sparty made its last spirited stand and pulled within three points of Purdue. Someone had to say no. Someone had to rise up and prevent a basketball journey from sliding completely off the train tracks.

E'Twaun Moore became that man.

He hit the biggest, baddest and boldest ice-veins three Purdue basketball fans have seen in a long, long time to give the Boilermakers a 68-62 cushion with 4:16 left.

He carved up the MSU defense and fed Hummel, his teammate, for an easy layup that made the score 70-62 with 3:30 left.

He worked his way into the paint and flew past the stunned and once-again sluggish Spartans for a layup of his own with 3:07 left, bumping the Purdue bulge back to 10 points at 72-62.

Three plays. Three consequential actions. One monumental response to suffocating pressure in a season on the brink.

E'Twaun Moore has existed in the shadow of Robbie Hummel for most of his Purdue career. After his display on Tuesday against the Big Ten's signature program of the past decade, Moore is now the undisputed leader and crunch-time king for a relieved roster of Boilermakers.

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