The ninth-seeded Purdue Boilermakers had a lead of 56-49 with 0:49 left in regulation, but Troy Caupain and the eighth-seeded Cincinnati Bearcats kept clawing to force overtime. In the extra period Cincinnati would not be denied as they were able to escape with a 66-65 overtime victory.

When the Bearcats best leading scorer Octavius Ellis received a flagrant two foul, with 16:22 left in the second half, after nailing Purdue center A.J. Hammons in the jaw, it seemed Cincinnati lost some of their edge, and that Purdue would continue the momentum. However, they stuck with it and kept forcing the issue and grinded out a win.

Cincinnati guard Farad Cobb led the Bearcats in scoring with 14 points on 5-of-11 shooting. Coreontae DeBerry came off the bench and filled in nicely for Ellis as he scored 13 points and blocked two shots. Randy Clark led the Bearcats in rebounding with 12 boards to go along with nine points. The hero of the night for Cincinnati was starting guard Troy Caupain who finished the game with 10 points and four assists. Six of Caupain’s 10 points came in the last minute of regulation and into overtime, including the game-tying layup at the buzzer to force overtime.

Purdue’s junior center A.J. Hammons led the way for the Boilermakers as he scored 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting while grabbing 10 rebounds. Forward Vince Edwards had a very balanced stat line as he scored 14 points, grabbed eight rebounds, and dished out seven assists. Guard Jon Octeus and backup center Isaac Haas both scored eight points apiece while combing for 14 rebounds.  

Purdue had a chance to win the game in overtime as Vince Edwards had the ball in his hands with five seconds left. Edwards was able to walk into an open three, but he just missed it as Purdue suffered a tough loss.

Not only did Purdue lose their opening game, but they snapped their 14-game winning streak in opening games of the NCAA Tournament. That was the fifth-longest such streak in NCAA history. This is Cincinnati’s fifth-straight tournament appearance, but the first time they’ve won an opening game since 2012 where they beat Texas and Florida State before losing to Ohio State in the regional semifinal.

Purdue crashed the boards as they outrebounded Cincinnati 50-to-39, but they couldn’t buy a three-pointer as they went 4-of-26 (15.4 percent) from downtown. They only shot 33.5 percent from behind the arc during the regular season, but tonight they couldn’t knock down open looks which played into the hands of the Bearcats defense.

Both of these team’s are defensive oriented teams, and it showed tonight as the Bearcats shot only 41 percent from the field and the Boilermakers shot 36.1 percent from the field. In the end the sixth ranked scoring defense in Cincinnati (55.6 PPG allowed) prevailed as they were able to get stops towards the end of the game. This game was a back and forth affair as there were 16 lead changes, but it was Cincinnati would make the final push to get over the top. Cincinnati will play the winner of (16) Hampton vs. (1) Kentucky.