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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- Once again, Purdue needed some late-game
heroics. Once again, Jaraan Cornell supplied them, sending the
Boilermakers to the final 16 for the third straight year.
Cornell, converting key foul shots and long-range baskets,
scored 13 of his 15 points in the final 9:30 as Purdue beat
Oklahoma 66-62 on Saturday in the second round of the West
Regional.
|  | | Purdue's Mike Robinson passes around Oklahoma's Victor Avila, right, and Nolan Johnson. |
"We were stale on offense and I just wanted to step up
personally and for my team," Cornell said. "After I hit the first
3, I felt my rhythm and the rest fell down."
Purdue has seen Cornell do it before. In the Boilermakers' 62-61
first-round victory, he hit three 3s in the final nine minutes.
"It's like putting in golf," Purdue coach Gene Keady said.
"You get that first one and then they all start falling. He did
the same thing against Dayton the other day."
He didn't do it alone.
Greg McQuay led the sixth-seeded Boilermakers (23-9) with 16
points in a game marked by bruising physical play and relentless
man-to-man defense that saw both teams contesting nearly every
shot.
"This was an up and down game the entire way, and we were able
to pull it out," Keady said. "This is such a sweet feeling right
now. We really worked hard for this."
Nolan Johnson led Oklahoma (27-7) with 20 points. Eduardo Najera
added 15 points and Hollis Price had 10 for the Sooners, who just
missed a second straight trip to the regional semifinals.
But the Sooners especially were hurt by poor perimeter shooting.
They were just 2-for-19 from beyond the arc after converting 10 of
21 3-pointers in their first-round rout of Winthrop.
"Purdue did a great job of containing our perimeter guys,"
Johnson said. "They weren't giving us any easy looks."
Added Najera, whose stellar career ended when he fouled out in
the final minute, "I still can't believe we lost tonight. We had
the game the whole time. We just didn't play smart enough."
Purdue advances to the West Regional semifinals starting Thursday in Albuquerque, N.M., against 10th-seeded Gonzaga, which stunned No. 2 seed St. John's 82-76 in the other second-round game.
"This team is like a roller coaster," McQuay said. "We do
good; then we lay down for a while. We matched up really well with
them. It was just a matter of who made the least mistakes."
Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson agreed.
"It's a fine, fine, fine line between winning and losing this
time of year," Sampson said. "We were a play away from going back
to the Sweet 16."
Cornell, who hit three 3s in the last nine minutes of Purdue's
62-61 first-round victory over Dayton, made clutch shots from
beyond the arc and at the foul line.
With Purdue trailing 49-44 after consecutive layups by Najera
and Victor Avila, Cornell rebounded a miss and put it back for a
layup and then drained successive 3-pointers to give Purdue a 52-49
lead with 7:49 remaining.
Oklahoma fought back to go in front 58-56 on Johnson's
tip-in with 1:49 remaining but Greg McQuay dunked off an alley-oop pass.
With 43.7 seconds left, Cornell was fouled on a 3-point try and
made all three free throws for a 63-60 lead with 43.7 seconds left.
Price made both ends of a 1-and-1, but Rodney Smith then made
three of four free throws down the stretch to secure the victory.
Purdue lost its last chance when a pass from Price was deflected
into the arms of Smith in the final seconds.
Brian Cardinal, Purdue's leading scorer who was just 3-for-13 on
the night from the field, missed his first six shots before
beginning the second half with a three-point play, giving the
Boilermakers a 31-30 lead.
But Najera shook free for a driving layup and Newton connected
from 3-point range, ending Oklahoma's 0-9 drought from beyond the arc.
Despite missing all eight 3-point tries in the first half,
Oklahoma took a 30-28 lead, outscoring the Boilermakers 12-5 over
the final 3:11.
After Smith hit Purdue's lone 3-pointer of the half, putting the
Boilermakers up 23-18, Najera hit a long baseline jumper and
Newton, shoved underneath the basket by Cornell, made both
free throws to trigger the Sooners' burst.
Najera finished the flurry with a breakaway dunk and a short
pullup jumper before Purdue closed in again, getting a pair of free
throws from Carson Cunningham and layin from Maynard Lewis off an outlet pass from Cunningham.
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ALSO SEE
Mens College Basketball Scoreboard
Purdue NCAA Team Report
Oklahoma NCAA Team Report
Chat: NCAA Tourney
Gonzaga returns to Sweet 16, shocking St. John's
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Jaraan Cornell stepped it up.
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RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Eduardo Najera upset about the the loss.
wav: 167 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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