Nov. 17, 2006

Final Stats

West Lafayette, Ind. - Western Carolina, described as a "thorn in the side" due to their hard-nosed play by the Purdue radio analyst, would not go away without a fight before falling down the stretch, 82-57, to the Boilermakers Friday night at Mackey Arena. After two games on the road to open the 2006-07 season, the Catamounts will return to Cullowhee Monday (Nov. 20) to host Atlanta Christian at 7 pm in Western's season home opener.

The Catamounts (1-1) were led by Antonio Russell's 15 points off the bench, all of which came in the second half, while freshman Nick Aldridge scored 12 points with eight rebounds and five assists. Senior Kyle Greathouse added 11 points. Purdue's top scorer, Marcus Green, also came off the bench and pumped in 15 points.

After Purdue (2-0) started the game with a 3-pointer, Western quickly knotted the game with a Greathouse 3-pointer. The game went back-and-forth with Aldridge hitting a trey to make the score 13-10. From that point, the Boilermakers went on a 10-0 run and never looked back. The Catamounts would go scoreless for over five minutes. However, the Cats were able to stay in the game by holding Purdue to just five points from the 11:45 until 4:33, making the score 31-18. Western went cold over the final four minutes of the half and trailed 41-24 at the break.

Western shot just 24.1 percent (7-of-29) from the floor in the first half, including just 4-of-14 from 3-point range, while being out-rebounded 24-14.

The Cats came out inspired in the second half, thanks to a pair of 3's from Greathouse and a jumper from Aldridge, to make it a 10-point contest (42-32) just over four minutes into the period. Purdue pulled away, but a an Aldridge jumper brought WCU's deficit back to 10 (48-38). The teams basically traded baskets over the next several possessions. After Greathouse drained a 3-pointer from the corner with 10:10 left, Western, who made seven of its first 15 shots in the second half, would trail by just 12 (56-44). From that point, Purdue went on a 24-7 run to go up 29 and put the game out of reach.