Rapheal Davis’ big night leads Purdue to its best win this season

Purdue senior Rapheal Davis couldn’t be stopped in the first half Tuesday against Michigan State but then couldn’t be found for much of the second half and overtime. Yet Davis managed to score the game-winning point at the free throw line thanks to a call that was at least debatable in the final seconds.

Denzel Valentine was guarding Davis with the score tied and the clock dripping away seconds. He elected to try to slip through the front side of a screen from Purdue center A.J. Hammons, who bumped Valentine into Davis. The call went against Valentime putting Davis at the foul line with four seconds remaining.

[Buddy Hield caps late barrage with 3-pointer to beat Texas]

Davis made the first free throw and missed the second, but Hammons grabbed the offensive rebound with an assist from Vince Edwards and Purdue claimed what is easily its biggest win of its season 82-81 over the eighth-ranked Spartans.

Davis scored 19 points in the first half and made five 3-pointers as the Boildermakers made a mockery of whatever it was Michigan State thought it was trying to do defensively in the opening 20 minutes. Purdue led by 16 at halftime and by 18 early in the second half and then suddenly, poof, what had been working marvelously was gone.

After making seven of 10 shots in the first half, Davis went 1-for-12 in the second.

[Duke wins crucial opening leg of upcoming four-game gauntlet]

Michigan State regrouped, clamped down on the defensive end and fought back to tie and then eventually take the lead. The Spartans seemed to suddenly have all the answers. With 4 minutes, 30 seconds remaining, they held a four-point lead.

Then they stopped making shots.

In the final minutes of regulation and overtime, Michigan State missed nine consecutive field goal attempts and was fortunate to get the game to an extra five minutes, in part, because of a bungled final possession by the Boildermakers, who settled for a long 3-pointer from Caleb Swanigan instead of working for something better and closer to the basket.

In the end, despite a strong effort to get back in the game in the second half, Michigan State was done in by a stretch of 6:45 at the end of regulation and overtime in which it didn’t make a field goal and made only two free throws.

Valentine led the Spartans with 27 points and almost pulled out a win despite an awful first half and poor shooting in crunchtime. But the Boilermakers needed this one much worse and thanks to a strange up-and down night from Davis, they got it.

– – – – – – –

[Kyle Ringo is the assistant editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo