Dec. 22, 2010
BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. - Brittany Rayburn scored a career-high 30 points, including the game winning three-pointer with 16 seconds to go to give Purdue a 59-58 victory at Gardner-Webb.
After Rayburn's deep three-pointer, Purdue (8-3) picked up in the back court and double-teamed Gardner-Webb's Dominique Hudson, nearly forcing a turnover on a five-second violation. Sierra Little got free for the inbounds pass, gave the ball up to Monique Hudson who drove the length of the floor but missed the layup. Alex Guyton grabbed the rebound and was fouled immediately with nine seconds to play. Purdue was in the bonus, but Guyton missed the first free throw attempt. The Boilermakers were back on defense and Dominique Hudson could penetrate no further than the free throw line. Chantel Poston and Guyton caught Dominique Hudson in a double-team at the elbow and Guyton blocked her shot attempt at the buzzer to seal the win.
It was a game of runs as Gardner-Webb (7-4) got out to an 8-0 lead to start the contest. Purdue answered with a 9-0 run to pull ahead 9-8. The Runnin' Bulldogs took a 10-point lead, 25-15, on an 11-0 run midway through the first half, but the Boilermakers cut the lead to six at the break on back-to-back baskets by sophomore Ashley Wilson.
Purdue outrebounded Gardner-Webb 37-34 and improved to 7-0 when outrebounding its opponent. The Boilermakers committed 21 turnovers to the Bulldogs' 15, but shot nearly 43 percent from the field and hit 4 of 8 three-pointers, including 4 of 6 by Rayburn.
Courtney Moses was Purdue's second-leading scorer with eight points. She also dished out four assists and had just two turnovers in a team-high 37 minutes.
Drey Mingo played 15 minutes, scoring six points and pulling down four rebounds.
Dominique Hudson led the Bulldogs with 20 points, seven assists and eight steals while playing all 40 minutes of the game. Monique Hudson scored eight points, had four assists and three steals but committed six turnovers.
The Boilermakers got revenge for last season's 56-55 loss to Gardner-Webb in Mackey Arena and picked up the first road win since defeating Penn State 80-76 in overtime on Jan. 28, 2010.
Purdue will return to action on Dec. 28 when it plays host to Western Illinois at 7 p.m. ET in Mackey Arena. The game will be carried via a live web stream on bigtennetwork.com.