INDIANAPOLIS — Zach Edey once again dominated with 23 points, 14 rebounds, three blocks and two steals to lead the top-seed Purdue Boilermakers to a 106-67 second-round Midwest rout of No. 8 seed Utah State on Sunday.
Purdue (31-4) advances to play No. 5 seed Gonzaga on Friday in Detroit.
Lance Jones and Trey Kaufman-Renn sparked a 20-6 uprising to open the second half, turning a 16-point lead to 30. Purdue didn’t let its foot off the gas in the second half, building the lead as high as 41.
Kaufman-Renn finished with 18 points and eight rebounds, while Fletcher Loyer added 15 points for Purdue went 8-of-14 from 3-point range in the second half to put the game away.
Great Osobor had 14 points and Josh Uduje added 13 for Utah State (28-7), which fell to 7-25 all-time in NCAA Tournament play and fell a round shy of reaching the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1970.
Purdue thrilled the heavily-partisan crowd of 16,770 that turned out to watch them advance to the Sweet 16 for the second time in three years.
Utah State provided some resistance early on, taking leads of 14-10 and 20-17.
But after Uduje hit a 3-pointer with 9:21 left in the first half to put the Aggies ahead 23-21, Utah State missed its next 12 shots from the field while Purdue caught fire behind Edey, Jones and Kaufman-Renn.
Purdue went on a run of 18-1 to take a 39-24 lead. Jones ended the first-half scoring when he banked in a 3-pointer at the buzzer to put the Boilermakers up 49-33.
Jones opened the second half with a trey as well, just 13 seconds in.
After Purdue’s Braden Smith stole a pass from Ian Martinez, Smith found Kaufman-Renn cutting to the basket for a layup.
On the next possession, Kaufman-Renn’s two-handed slam ignited the Purdue fans, putting the Boilermakers up 56-33 and sparking a desperate timeout from Utah State head coach Danny Sprinkle just 73 seconds into the half.
–Mike Petraglia, Field Level Media
