#2 Purdue Beats #4 Marquette to Win Maui Invitational

The Maui Invitational is an annual Thanksgiving week tournament that showcases some of the best teams in college basketball. And why not, who wouldn’t want to go to Hawaii for a basketball tournament? This year, the event was held in Honolulu due to the devastating wildfires in Maui earlier this year.

The field this year included #1 ranked Kansas, #2 Purdue, #4 Marquette, #7 Tennessee, and #11 Gonzaga, along with unranked but perennial powers UCLA and Syracuse. In semifinal action, Purdue edged out Tennessee 71-67, while Marquette upset Kansas 73-59, in a game the Golden Eagles dominated, leading for all but 22 seconds. That set up the final between Purdue and Marquette.

The Boilermakers led 45-33 at the half, and built their lead to 15 points early on in the second half, but Marquette kept grinding away at the Purdue lead, and pulled to within one point at 76-75 with 55 seconds left. Purdue’s Zach Edey, last season’s National Player of the Year, tipped one in with 23 seconds to go, to seal a 78-75 victory. Edey scored 28 points and grabbed 15 rebounds to lead the Boilermakers. Marquette point guard Tyler Kolek, last season’s Big East Player of the Year, led the Golden Eagles with 22 points.