March 21, 2003
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By JOHN ZENOR
AP Sports Writer
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - With the game tied at halftime, Gene Keady dangled a prize in front of his Purdue players.
"It was like, 'You do want to play Texas, don't you?"' he said.
The ninth-seeded Boilermakers answered their coach with an inspired performance. They scored the first 13 points of the second half to begin a 28-8 tear for an 80-56 victory over No. 8 seed LSU on Friday in the first round of the South Regional.
The Boilermakers (19-10) meet No. 1 Texas, an 82-61 winner over North Carolina Asheville, on Sunday. Keady was uncharacteristically looking ahead at halftime.
"I don't know why I did that," Keady said. "It's not like me."
Even Purdue's blunders looked brilliant coming out of the locker room.
Nobody went up to catch Willie Deane's alley-oop pass, but it bounced off the glass and right into Chris Booker's arms. Booker hit a bank shot and the ensuing free throw, then freshman Melvin Buckley drained two 3-pointers for a 48-34 lead.
The game was tied at 32 at halftime, but was one-sided after that.
"We never really could make a play or two," said LSU coach John Brady, who got his head coaching start a few miles away at Samford. "It always seemed like the ball wasn't bouncing our way or we couldn't get our hands on it."
Buckley finished with a career-high 20 points, matching his combined total from the last six games and nine more than his previous best. With LSU focused on stopping Booker and Deane, Buckley went 5-of-6 from 3-point range and made all three in the second half.
 | "He said he was going to come out today and do what he had to do to get us through this game." Kenneth Lowe on freshman Melvin Buckley |
"He just knocked down 3s," LSU's Ronald Dupree said. "We had hands in his face. Their supporting cast played a great game, and that was the main difference."
Buckley's teammates weren't surprised.
"He said he was going to come out today and do what he had to do to get us through this game," said Kenneth Lowe, who scored all 14 of his points in the first half despite a lingering shoulder injury.
Deane finished with only 11 points, but did have the creative assist.
LSU (21-11) opened the half with cold shooting (2-of-13) and hot tempers. Brady was whistled for a technical foul with 11:59 left after coming onto the court arguing that Purdue had committed a 10-second violation before calling a timeout.
It was probably LSU's liveliest moment of the half.
"We never really threw some solid punches back," Dupree said. "We never countered them."
 Purdue's Melvin Buckley celebrates after his team's 80-56 defeat of LSU in the first-round.  | |
Deane hit both free throws after the technical, and a few minutes later David Teague's 3-pointer made it 58-40.
Behind Kentucky, LSU had been the Southeastern Conference's hottest team with seven wins in its previous eight games, including two in the league tournament.
But the Tigers went just 6-of-26 from 3-point range, and leading scorer Dupree was largely a nonfactor with eight points.
"I'm pretty shocked," Dupree said of the loss. "We had expected ourselves to do better."
Jaime Lloreda carried the Tigers with 21 points and 14 rebounds but hit just 5-of-11 free throws. Torris Bright finished with 10 points.
Purdue wasn't burdened with a slow start this time, needing just seven minutes to match its 12 first-half points against Michigan State in the Big Ten tournament.
Lowe opened with a 3-pointer and hit all three free throws after being fouled on another attempt in the first 54 seconds.
The Big Ten's defensive player of the year had played only 14 minutes in the Boilermakers' last four games after dislocating the shoulder Feb. 22.