It wasn’t Purdue’s 7-foot-4 Wooden Award winner Zach Edey who inflicted the most damage to Tennessee during Tuesday night’s first semifinal at the Allstate Maui Invitational.
It was a 6-4 sophomore guard averaging 6.8 points per game.
Fletcher Loyer poured in 27 points to lead the No. 2 Boilermakers to a 71-67 topping of the No. 7 Volunteers, which resulted in Tennessee’s first loss following a 4-0 start. Edey battled foul trouble for much of the evening but still provided 23 points and 10 rebounds to complement Loyer’s hot hand.
“He made some big buckets down the stretch and made big buckets all game when I was out,” Edey said of Loyer on the ESPN telecast. “We wouldn’t have won this game without him. We wouldn’t have been close.”
Purdue improved to 5-0 and advanced to Wednesday night’s championship game against Tuesday’s second semifinal winner between No. 1 Kansas and No. 4 Marquette. The Vols have a Wednesday date with the Kansas-Marquette loser in the third-place game.
Dalton Knecht led the Vols with 16 points, while Jordan Gainey added 15.
“It felt like it was March,” Gainey said on the Vol Network. “It was just a high-level game. They came out with the win, and we’ve got to go back and clean up some things and play another top-four team in the country.”
Gainey’s 3-pointer with 3:10 remaining pulled the Vols into a 64-64 tie, but the Boilermakers scored six straight points until Knecht connected on a 3-pointer with 13.5 seconds to play. Lance Jones hit the second of two free throws with 12.1 seconds left to cap the scoring.
Loyer and Jones made 3-pointers early in the second half to spark a 13-4 run that turned a 31-30 halftime deficit into a 43-35 lead.
The two teams combined for 51 personal fouls, which led to 78 free-throw attempts. Tobe Awaka fouled out for the Vols with 3:44 to play, with Jonas Aidoo fouling out with 2:24 remaining.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.