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GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 25, EXPRESS 24 • 18 BY KYLE CHARTERS KCharters@GoldandBlack.com HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — In the Big Ten Tournament, the Boilermakers showed more energy, hustle and heart than they had dis- played for much of the regular season. And the result was a win in Round 1, breaking Purdue's 10-game losing streak, and a near-upset in the second round. The 14th-seeded Boilermakers beat 11-seed Wis- consin on Wednesday night, before losing to No. 6-seed Minnesota on Thursday. But even against the Gophers, Purdue showed fight, trailing by 18 only eight minutes in before ral- lying to take a three-point lead with five minutes left. But it wasn't enough. Purdue's loss ended its season 11-20, only the second 20-loss sea- son in the program's history. The following are take- aways from the tourna- ment: S It's hard not to consider what might have been. The Boilermak- ers played with focus in the tournament, getting after teams on defense and being much more efficient on offense — only 25 turnovers in two games — leading to the big question: Why didn't Purdue play like this before? Not that it would have been in the NCAA Tourna - ment — this was a flawed Purdue team — but its con- ference record might have been closer to .500 and it could have made the WNIT. Or, with a better seed, perhaps it makes a deeper run in the Big Ten tourney. But with the Boilermakers struggling through much of Janu- ary and February, not playing nearly as hard as they did in March, they had little chance of picking up victories, certainly not consistently. S It's going to be dif- ficult to replace Whitney Bays and Liza Clemons. The former was a double-double every game, and capable of taking over offensively, like she did vs. Minnesota. The Gophers knew Purdue was going to Bays, yet could do little to slow her down. She scored 28. The latter was a near double-double every game, especially in the latter half of the Big Ten season. Purdue didn't use its underclassmen posts — Bree Horrocks and Erica Moore — much this season, only a handful of minutes per game for Horrocks and less than that for Moore. How does Purdue deal with replacing Bays and Clemons next season? It's a huge question. S Purdue has to get the turnovers under control. If it's not going to shoot well — and it didn't all season — then it needs to give itself more opportunities. It did so against the Bad- gers and the Gophers, and although it didn't shoot particularly well, its offense was much more efficient. It was nowhere near that for the last half dozen games of the season, when the Boil- ermakers had 20 or more turnovers in five outings. Purdue simply cannot afford to give the ball away in such bunches. j Tom Campbell Whitney Bays scored 44 points in two Big Ten Tournament games. W O M E N ' S B A S K E T B A L L G O L D B O X E S L I N K T O G A M E S T O R I E S A LOOK BACK AT THE LAST WEEK OF BASKETBALL