Nov. 19, 2003
Box Score?|? Quotes?|? Notes?|? Photo Gallery
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Purdue men's basketball team moved to 2-0 in exhibition play with a 72-70 win over the Huntsville Flight on Tuesday.
The talented Flight are one of six teams in the NBA's National Basketball Developmental League.
The Boilermakers and Flight were knotted up at 59 apiece with 4:38 remaining. Huntsville took a one-point lead at 63-62 on a layup by former Alabama star Rod Grizzard with 3:53 remaining.
Senior Brett Buscher knocked down a baseline jumper with 3:31 left to give the Boilermakers the lead for good. Sophomore David Teague connected on a clutch three-point field goal with 1:03 left to put the Boilermakers up by four. He finished with a team-high 15 points in 26 minutes of action.
"This was a perfect scenario for us tonight," said head coach Gene Keady. "We played an extremely atheltic team, and they gave us everything we could handle. I like the fact that we were tested in a close game. You can't duplicate things like that in practice."
Sophomore Melvin Buckley added 13 points and was 3 of 7 from downtown. Senior captain Kenneth Lowe scored 12 points, grabbed five rebounds and dished out four assists.
The Boilermakers distributed 17 assists on the evening and only committed nine turnovers.
"Our assist-to-turnover ratio was much better," said Keady. "That's been one of our points of emphasis, so that was great to see."
After a disappointing performance in the their first exhibition game, the Boilermakers' post players had a better showing despite being outrebounded 42-33 by the Flight.
Senior Chris Booker scored eight points, pulled down six rebounds and blocked four shots. Senior Brett Booker chipped in nine points and had six boards.
"I think our posts played better, but there is still some things to work on," said Keady. "Now it's on to the real thing."
The Boilermakers open the regular season on Sunday at 2 p.m. EST against Samford in Mackey Arena.