NCAA Tournament: How No. 12 seed Little Rock took out No. 5 Purdue
Little Rock used an 18-5 run in the final minutes to send the game to overtime tied at 70 on a ridiculous 30-foot, 3-pointer from Josh Hagins. Two OTs later, UALR scored the second 12-5 upset of the NCAA tourney.
By
Sam Vecenie
•
3 min read
We have an early contender for best game of the 2016 NCAA Tournament.
No. 12 seed Little Rock used what will be one of the more memorable comebacks in first-round history to knock off No. 5 Purdue 85-83 in double overtime.
With 3:33 left in regulation, it looked like the Boilermakers were going to pull out the win easily. It was 65-52, and the game was well in control as the Trojans offense scuffled along and struggled to get clean looks against Purdue's size inside.
That's when the Rock began its run.
The Trojans amped up their energy and started using a full-court press to take Purdue out of its rhythm. It worked, as the Boilermakers continued to turn the ball over and couldn't establish any offense. Still though, Little Rock found itself down 3 with 10 seconds left. That's when Josh Hagins took over.
Hagins knocked down a ridiculous, fadeaway 30-foot 3-pointer to send the game to overtime.
In all, it was an 18-5 run that pushed the game into overtime. Hagins finished with 31 points, 29 of which came either in the second half or overtime. He also became the first player in NCAA Tournament history, according to Little Rock, to score at least 30 points, grab five rebounds, dish out five assists and get five steals in a game.
"I'm a senior," Hagins said after the game. "I've waited 22 years, to be honest, to get to this point, this one game. I wasn't going to go out like that. I wasn't going to go without a fight. I made shots, missed them. I was going to go out swinging."
Swing, he did. He simply took control of the game against Purdue's guards, who struggled throughout the entire season to establish themselves consistently.
Purdue was at its best in this one when the Trojans eased off the pressure and allowed Matt Painter and company to slow things down. A.J. Hammons finished with 16 points, 15 rebounds and six blocks, but he was largely invisible offensively for the final 20 minutes of the game as the guards just simply couldn't get him the ball. Once the full-court pressure kicked in, the Boilermakers started to really struggle to establish themselves on offense.
And boy, what an adjustment that was by Little Rock coach Chris Beard. The Boilermakers' inability to control the ball or tempo in the final 20 minutes was the story of the game. Little Rock scored 25 points off of 18 Purdue turnovers. Hammons only scored six points in the final 26 minutes of the game, as Beard implemented a halfcourt defense predicated on basically just leaving an offensive player wide open while having his man help down on Hammons. Neither Johnny Hill nor Rapheal Davis took advantage of the open looks they had, and eventually Matt Painter was forced to play without a point guard on the floor in order to counteract it.
Purdue was also forced to play without Caleb Swanigan and Isaac Haas for large swaths of the game in large part due to what Beard did on the sidelines. He forced an uptempo game on a team that likes to feed the ball through their post players. In fact, Beard spoke after the game about how important it was for their players to see that they dictated their tempo upon Purdue, and not the other way around late in the game.
"[In prep], we talked about, 'Do you think Purdue would match up with us or do you think it's going to be a deal where we're going to have to match up with them all game long?'" Beard said. "We never in our wildest dreams imagined they would match up with us. Late in the game when they did that, it brought us confidence. Looking around the huddle, This is real, this is our moment. They just matched up with us. Let's go play Little Rock basketball."
That's the biggest thing Little Rock has going for it right now: confidence. This group is now 30-4 on the season, and will take on Iowa State on Saturday. One thing is clear: this group is unafraid of the moment, and will be ready to go when they take on the Cyclones in Denver.
After all, they just pulled off a remarkable, shocking comeback that took only three minutes and thirty-three seconds.
