{"id":202139,"date":"2026-03-23T08:26:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T08:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/202139\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T08:26:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T08:26:17","slug":"fletcher-loyer-stars-as-purdue-beats-miami-79-69-to-advance-to-3rd-straight-sweet-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/202139\/","title":{"rendered":"Fletcher Loyer stars as Purdue beats Miami 79-69 to advance to 3rd straight Sweet 16"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. LOUIS \u2014 Fletcher Loyer scored 24 points, Trey Kaufman-Renn had 19 points and nine rebounds, and No. 2 seed Purdue beat Miami 79-69 on Sunday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament<\/a>, advancing to the Sweet 16 for the third straight time and seventh in the last nine years.<\/p>\n

In his first game since breaking Bobby Hurley\u2019s NCAA career record<\/a> for assists, Braden Smith had 12 points and eight assists but was also harassed by Miami\u2019s athletic guards into eight turnovers, matching his career high.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a good team, we have good balance, and Braden is the guy that makes us go and he sets things off,\u201d Boilermakers coach Matt Painter said. \u201cI know he\u2019s frustrated, but we were able to win and advance, and now we can play another day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith hit four free throws in the final minute after seventh-seeded Miami (26-9) had cut an 11-point deficit to 73-69, helping to secure Painter\u2019s 500th victory<\/a> in 21 seasons as Purdue\u2019s coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve put in so much in all areas to be the best that they can be, and that\u2019s how you end up getting a lot of victories, because you have really good players that are committed,\u201d said Painter, who is just 12 short of Gene Keady\u2019s school record.<\/p>\n

Purdue (29-8) advances to face 11th-seeded Texas<\/a> in the West Region semifinals Thursday in San Jose, California. It\u2019ll be the teams\u2019 first meeting since Purdue eliminated Texas in the second round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n

Shelton Henderson led the Hurricanes with 18 points and eight rebounds while also frequently guarding Smith, and Malik Reneau had 16 points with seven turnovers. Miami matched the recognized NCAA record by increasing its win total by 19 from last season, when it went 7-24. Iowa State improved by 20 wins after the pandemic-impacted 2020-21 season, when it only played five nonconference games.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to get here. It\u2019s hard to be a part of March Madness. It\u2019s hard to win a game,\u201d first-year coach Jai Lucas said. \u201cSo I am just appreciative of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaufman-Renn followed Loyer\u2019s driving layup with a three-point play as Purdue created a little breathing room with an 11-3 run in the second half. Loyer\u2019s steal set up a fast-break layup by Smith that pushed the Boilermakers\u2019 advantage to 68-57 with 5:32 to play.<\/p>\n

\"Image:Shelton Henderson, who led the Miami Hurricanes with 18 points and eight rebounds, shoots the ball against Fletcher Loyer of the Purdue Boilermakers in St. Louis on Sunday.Jamie Squire \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Henderson, who is six inches taller and 70 pounds heavier than Smith, said the emphasis was on being physical. Painter quipped that Henderson could also play football for the Hurricanes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing with him is you\u2019ve got to try to limit him as much as possible because he\u2019s the engine to the machine. Everybody knows that,\u201d Lucas said. \u201cAnd so we tried to deny him. We tried to trap him. … We just had to give him different looks. We tried to make him as uncomfortable as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith had more turnovers (four) than assists (two) in an uncharacteristic first half while making just one of his six shots. He ended up 3 for 12 from the field,<\/p>\n

And yet, he still made critical contributions, including combining with Loyer to go 14 for 14 from the foul line.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hold myself to a higher standard. It was a bit frustrating,\u201d Smith said. \u201cObviously I wanted shots to fall, but win and advance, and we move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loyer, the school\u2019s record holder for 3-pointers, also made all four of his 3s as Purdue was 57% from behind the arc.<\/p>\n

After Miami\u2019s strong start that included an alley-oop dunk by Ernest Udeh Jr. just after the opening tip, Loyer powered Purdue into the lead with 10 points during a 13-2 surge. His second 3-pointer in that run put Purdue up 19-12 with 12:19 left in the first half.<\/p>\n

The Hurricanes whittled away at the deficit, limiting Smith\u2019s efficacy, and reclaimed the lead on Richardson\u2019s two-handed jam that made it 31-29 with 4:01 to go before halftime. Miami led 40-38 at the break after Tre Donaldson\u2019s transition layup in the closing seconds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. LOUIS \u2014 Fletcher Loyer scored 24 points, Trey Kaufman-Renn had 19 points and nine rebounds, and No.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-202139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}