Purdue Basketball Improved Record To 6-2

Number 9 Purdue hosted Arkansas- Pine Bluff this past Saturday in Mackey Arena. The final score was 90- 42, making the win for Purdue the 7th largest win margin in school history, and the second biggest win margin in Mackey Arena.

JaJuan Johnson led the team along with scoring a career high of 20 points for the Boilers. Johnson had 14 points and three dunks in the first half as the Boilermakers led 44-23 at the break. A few other Boilers in the spot light were E’Twaun Moore, who had 15 points and six steals, Nemanja Calasan had 13 rebounds and 23 points, and Marcus Green scores 12 points for Purdue, who is now 6-2. The Boilermakers forced 35 turnovers and their defense stopped the Pine Bluff from having a high percentage of shooting, which was only 23 percent.

Purdue came back from a two game loosing streak against No. 6 Oklahoma and No. 4 Duke. But they came back from that streak and stopped it from being the first of a two game loosing streak since the end of the 2005- 2006 season.

Now for the Golden Lions, who are 0 and 7 so far this season. Tyree Glass led Pine Bluff with 18 points, but on the bad hand had 11 turnovers. He was the leading scorer considering no other player scored over 6 points the whole game.
Pine Bluff has lost every game this season by double digits. Its closest game was a 14-point loss at Nebraska. The Golden Lions have lost their games by an average of 32 points. The second half was just a repeat of the first pretty much.

Purdue’s next basketball game is on the road at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana on December 9 at 7:00 p.m. Ball State University has a record so far of 4-3. Arkansas Pine Bluff is against SMU Dallas Texas at December 12 at 7:00 p.m.

Boilermaker Volleyball Couldn't Pull Another Win Off

After their win against Indiana on Friday, Purdue volleyball could not pull another win off this past weekend against the Penn State Nittany Lions. Penn State is the winner of the NCAA record of 54 straight matches who have not lost a set in 28 matches so far this season. They topped the Boilermakers off with a 3-0 win.

The first match ended with a 25-20 loss over the Nittany Lions. Penn State took the lead early on during this match to 16-9. The Boilermakers did not let that put them down. They came back and closed the lead with the help from Stephanie Lynch and Danita Merlau with kills, and Jaclyn Hart with an ace (a non returnable serve that drops or is not playable) to 17-14. Then the Nittany Lions pulled up 6 more points and had the score of 23-17. The set ended on a service error from Purdue.

Penn State led the first four points in the second set, but shortly after that the Boilermakers came back and tied up the game 6-6 with the help of Purdue’s blockers at the net. Lisa Pierce, Lynch, and Carrie Gurnell all assisted in the three blocks. The Nittany Lions found there way once again to pull ahead by getting the next 8 points out of the 12, making the score 14-10. The Boilermakers made it a one point game after that to a 14-13. Penn State then pulled away and the score was 23-16, and in the end a kill by Megan Hodge ended the set with a final score of 25-21, Penn State.

The start of the third and final set of the night started out a little better for the Boilermakers. They scored 3 out of the first 4 points. Two of those points came from a pair of blocks, Merlau also helped by putting down some kills. With the score 6-4, the Boilermakers let in and let the Nittany Lions score the next 9 points, making the score 13-6. Shortly after that 9 point lead, the Boilermakers came back and closed the gap 16-11. Arthurs ended the rally at 24-14 with a kill, but Hodge came right back and ended the third set of the night with a kill. The final score was 25-15.

After this match, Purdue’s records are 21-7 overall, and 10-6 in the Big Ten. The Boilermakers next game is home at 7 p.m. on Wednesday against Big Ten rivalry Illinois Fighting Illini.

Purdue Wins Against IU----Volleyball

Yay for the Boilermakers! They defeated the Hoosiers last night in a close match of 3-2. The sets were back and forth. Purdue won the first set 25-21, lost the second 13-25, won the third set 25-19, lost the fourth set, 22-25, and ended the match with a 15-12 win over the Hoosiers. This game was a sold out game with a total of 2,493. It was highly populated by a bunch of little girl scout girls who seemed to be the Purdue’s Volleyball team’s biggest fans of the night. All the girls were enthusiastic when it came to Purdue winning.

In the first set, the Hoosiers took an early lead, but after seven ties Purdue finally broke their lead and had a five point lead at 19-14. Then the Hoosiers came back and almost tied the game to 19-17, but with the help of Stephanie Lynch and Carrie Gurnell, they ended the set with a kill each, 25-21.

The Boilermakers were not as fortunate to gain the lead in the second set. Indiana had a big lead early on in the set with a 17-6 lead over the Boilermakers. The closet the set ever got was when the Boilermakers closed the gap to a 21-13, which they were still behind. The Hoosiers took the win with a 25-13 final score. Statistically, during this set alone, IU hit .429 and blocked the Boilermakers five times in the set, while Purdue managed a -.032 hitting effort and just one block.

After the intermission, the Boilermakers came back and got a small lead of 4-1. Indiana came back and almost tied the game to 6-5. During the third set, there was nine lead changes, where neither team could get more than one point passed the other. With a 18-17 lead over the Hoosiers, Purdue took the set to an end with the help of Lisa Pierce, who got a kill and then served for the next six points, putting the set at 24-18. Danita Merlau ended the set with her 5th kill of this set.

The closest set of the night was the fourth set. It consisted of twelve ties, four lead changes, which three of them occurred in the first 11 points. The biggest lead the Boilermakers had was 12-9, but shortly after that, Indiana came back and tied the game up 12-12. Then it was tied at 14-14, but after Jaclyn Hart got a kill and an Indiana error, the boilermakers took the lead once again. Indiana then came back and closed the gap up 17-16. At this point, Indiana broke through and took the lead for the rest of the set. Purdue almost had a good come back and tied the game up 21-21. Indiana pulled through and ended the fourth set 25-22.

It’s now Purdue 2, Indiana 2, so this calls for the fifth set to kick in. The fifth set only goes to 15. For most of the set, the Boilermakers had the lead, and they ended the night with a win of 15-12.

At the end of the game, Purdue’s coach Dave Shondell gave his input about Indiana and the game in general. "I give a lot of credit to Indiana because they have come a long way in a short time under Sherry Dunbar and her staff."They were well prepared for us. For the first two and half games our team played like they had to win. Then, Lisa Pierce came in and got us going with her serve and we settled down. The difference for us tonight was that as the match wore on, defensively our block did a better job of following and defending their hitters."

The No. 18 Boilermakers (21-6, 10-5 Big Ten) return to action at 7 p.m. Saturday when they welcome the defending national champion, No. 1 Penn State to Belin Court.

PU vs IU Volleyball Tonight..Who Is Going To Win?

After loosing a match against the Minnesota Golden Gophers, and winning against the Iowa Hawkeyes on the road, the Purdue Boilermakers are hoping gain another win tonight at home against their biggest rivalries, Indiana University. The Boilermakers and Hoosiers have faced once so far this season in Bloomington on September 27th. Purdue pulled the win off with a 3-2 ending. Will the Boilermakers be able to pull another win off?

Last weekend, Indiana gave up a same win to the Michigan State Spartans like back October, loosing 3-1. IU is ranked number 7 in the Big Ten Network, with a loosing record of 6-8. Overall, they have a winning record of 14-12. Their biggest win was against the Minnesota Golden Gophers, who are ranked 2nd in the Big Ten on November 1. They won 3-2. That is a big step up from the previous season. Seeing that the Golden Gophers did beat the Boilermakers, is there a chance that Indiana will be able to come back and get revenge against the boilermakers?

The Boilermakers are ranked 4th in the Big Ten with a winning record of 9-5. Their overall season record is 20-6. With a loss against the Golden Gophers, Purdue is hoping to come back and beat their major rivalries, considering Indiana did beat Minnesota.

I think there is a high chance of Indiana coming back and beating Purdue. It seems like Indiana is getting better as the season progresses on. Seeing they did beat Minnesota and just a week ago, Purdue lost against the same team. It is going to be a great game, and I will be there to experience it myself. Let’s hope the Boilermakers can pull off another win against the Hoosiers to improve their records with another win!

On another note, AT&T is sponsoring this year’s Crimson and Gold Cup. This is where for every sport at each college goes against each other and whoever wins gets a point towards the twenty possible points they can receive. If there is a tie, they split the one point and each of them get ½ a point.

“The winner of regular season head-to-head competition earns the point for its institution. Should the teams split or tie in regular season competition the point is split between the two institutions (i.e. if each team wins two games in baseball the point is split). The two schools tied, 10-10, in 2007-08. If the two institutions do not compete in head-to-head regular season competition, the team that places higher at the Big Ten Championship will earn the point. Should they tie in conference championship competition the point will be split. In the sport of track & field three-way meets that are scored as dual meets do not count as head-to-head competition. The overall winner of the contest will be awarded a trophy at the end of the season.” (http://iuhoosiers.cstv.com/ot/ind-crimson-gold-cup.html)

As of right now, Indiana is in the lead with a total of 2 ½ points, and Purdue with 1 point. So in order for the Boilermakers to keep up, they need to win tonight’s volleyball game so they will only be a ½ of a point behind!

A Game Worth Watching

For all the Purdue Football fans, today’s game was incredible! Breaking our loosing streak and finally gaining a win against the Michigan Wolverines. With a first time starter, Justin Siller as our quarterback, we played really well. It was a good match up today in the Ross-Ade Stadium. At the beginning, I was questioning on whether or not we would stay with the Wolverines, considering they started off with a lead of 0-14 in the first quarter. But as the game went on, and the Boilers tied the game up 14-14, it made me realize that we actually had a chance of winning this ball game!

This game was an intense game to watch I thought. I mean, it was back and forth between the two teams. We would be tied then one of them would score and then the other. It seemed like the whole game had a pattern to it. But during the second quarter, we were down by two touchdowns, and at half time we still remained two behind. So my roommate and I were like, ok lets just stay at the tailgate party and just watch it on the television because it’s not worth standing up and watching us loose once again. We told each other that we were going to go back into the game during the third quarter just because the band plays the “Shout” song and we love dancing to it. Once we got back into the game, we noticed we were catching back up to the Wolverines, so we were both excited and glad we came back in.

The play I remember the best was when Sheets handed the ball off to a teammate after he received it from Siller, and he ran in for a Boilermaker touchdown. That was the touchdown that pulled the Boilers ahead of the Wolverines, 48-42. The Wolverines blocked the kick, so we did not get the extra point. It was stressful at the end of the game because I thought for sure Michigan was going to score and make the field goal. Thankfully, Purdue’s defense was strong enough to prevent them to not score!

I know I did not get into great details of the game, but if you go to this website, http://purduesports.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/recaps/110108aaa.html# , you will be able to find the stats, videos, and pictures of today’s game. I hope this win today will boost their confidence and help them keep their heads up and give them hope for next weeks game at Michigan State.