IN A thrilling game of basketball, the number three Purdue Boilermakers managed to scrape past a valiant effort from the Michigan State Spartans in the NCAA on Monday.

The Boilermakers claimed a nail-biting one-point triumph at Breslin Center, but had to overcome a Michigan State side that seemingly had a reply for every bucket. Although Purdue were the favourites coming into the match, it had to give everything to get over the line, but class shone through in the end.

Zach Edey was the star of the show for the winning side, delivering a massive double-double on the road and taking full control of the match as he pleased. He finished with a statline of 32 points, 17 rebounds and two blocks in a dominant display. From the field, he shot 13/26, not shying away from firing off a field goal attempt, with the Boilermakers looking to feed the ball into the paint and find him. Fletcher Loyer was also a big contributor for Purdue, shooting 2/3 from behind the arc to finish with 17 crucial points.

For the Spartans, Tyson Walker led from the front with an outstanding offensive performance. He had a team-high 30 points on 12/23 shooting. He was the dominant scoring option for Michigan State, with his teammates chipping in for a basket every now and then. It was one of the most memorable scoring performances from a Spartans player this season, and kept the side in the match.

It was a tense start to the match, with the Spartans running some old-school plays that resulted in some easy buckets for Michigan State. However, the Boilermakers caught fire from behind the arc and stretched the lead out to nine points. Edey began to take over, putting the sword to the opposition interior defence and conjuring plenty of offence. However, the home side did not roll over, and kept themselves in it right until the last minute of the game.

Michigan State had the opportunity to take the lead in the dying seconds of the match, and drew up a great play to get the best look. The ball was inbounded to Walker, who was the team’s hot hand at that stage of the match, having given his side a short-lived lead 10 seconds earlier. With 1.8 seconds left on the clock, he caught the ball cutting across the top of the key, and put up the final shot of the game. However, the pressure from the Purdue defence forced the attempt wayward enough to not even graze the rim, and the Boilermakers held on in a classic.