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GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 25, EXPRESS 13 • 7 BY BRIAN NEUBERT BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com P urdue's recent dominance of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge continued Tuesday night with the Boilermakers' 66-61 win over North Carolina State in an energized Mackey Arena. It was the Boilermakers' sixth con- secutive win in the Challenge and part of the Big Ten's 8-6 series win in this year's edition. It also represented the continuation of the momentum Purdue picked up by winning its final two games at the Maui Invitational and represented some measure of improve- ment, considering the Boilermakers — turnover-riddled in every game, even wins, this season — only gave the ball up 10 times against the Wolfpack. That said, they were impactful turnovers, leading to 18 N.C. State points. Defense carried Purdue late as North Carolina State was held scoreless during the game's final 3:15. Purdue leveraged its size in the post for all it was worth — A.J. Hammons and Isaac Haas combined for 28 points and 12 rebounds — and freshman Vince Edwards was excellent again, scoring a team-high 16 points and grabbing a team-best nine rebounds, seven of them off the offensive glass. Here are our takeaways from the game: S Lesson learned in victory against BYU: Effort plays matter. The Boilermakers didn't get the "50-50" balls against BYU, per Coach Matt Painter, and still won. Had they not against North Carolina State, they probably wouldn't have. P.J. Thompson was crucial in that respect. In addition to making the biggest shot of the game — a three that put Purdue up six with five minutes left — he ran down a few long offensive rebounds, played good defense and helped the offense move, finishing with four assists and no turnovers in 22 minutes while fellow point guard Bryson Scott was out with a bad ankle. This is exactly what he was recruited to do: Glue- type things. S Purdue is doing exactly what it had to: Milking its massive advantage on the interior for all its worth, in every phase of the game. The combination of Ham - mons and Haas has been a game-changer every time the Boilermakers have taken the floor and this team is different than past ones in the sense that it's more likely to play to accentuate its strengths. S Edwards is as versatile a player as Painter's ever had, Robbie Hummel included. In the same game, the rookie forward buried three threes, grabbed nine re- bounds, scored off a back-to- the-basket post-up, brought the ball up the floor more than once and handed out the assist on the biggest play of the game for the second game in a row, in this case Thompson's three. Prior, it was Ham- mons' game-winner against BYU. j M E N ' S B A S K E T B A L L G O L D B O X L I N K S T O G A M E S T O R Y A LOOK BACK AT THE LAST WEEK OF BASKETBALL FLASH FORWARD Opponent: North Florida Location: Mackey Arena When: 2 p.m. Saturday Notables: North Florida comes in at 4-3, with an impressive Big Ten loss earlier this season. The Ospreys pushed Northwestern to its brink in Evanston before falling 69-67. It led the Wildcats by as many as seven in the second half, before Northwestern made its final six shots and rallied to win. … Dallas Moore, a 6-foot-1 guard, is averaging 17.4 points per game and shooting just under 50 percent from three-point range. He scored 27 at Indiana last season. Tom Campbell Freshman Vince Edwards already has shown to be one of the most versatile players Matt Painter has had.