Indianapolis — For the first two and a half games, Purdue guard Katie Gearlds played against the MSU women's basketball team and failed to showcase the skills that earned her First-Team All-Big Ten honors.
In the contests between the Spartans and Boilermakers on Jan. 11, Feb. 11 and during the first half of last Sunday's Big Ten Tournament semifinal game, Gearlds shot 9-of-29 from the field.
But when it mattered most during the second half of the Big Ten Tournament game March 4, Gearlds stepped on the accelerator, shooting 6-of-11 from the field with 14 points in the half as the Boilermakers overcame a 12-point, second-half deficit to defeat the Spartans, 64-61.
Purdue went on to win the Big Ten Tournament title.
"She lead this team," Purdue forward Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton said of Gearlds. "Starting off the (second) half, she started knocking down some shots for us, and we just kind of went on her back."
Gearlds hit a fadeaway shot over MSU's 6-foot-9 freshman center Allyssa DeHaan that she said got her "hyped."
"I just think when she gets in a rhythm, it's really hard for teams to get her out of her rhythm," Purdue head coach Sharon Versyp said.
After the struggles Gearlds had in the first two contests between the teams, MSU head coach Joanne P. McCallie said she thought it was just a matter of time before Gearlds went off.
"When you have an excellent player like that, you just have to be aware," she said. "Some things worked, some didn't. I know she only hit a few 3s, but they were huge 3s. I mean, that's the game right there."
MSU played one of its better halves of basketball in the first half, controlling the tempo both offensively and defensively while taking a 34-26 lead.
"We played well together," senior guard Victoria Lucas-Perry said. "We moved the ball, we found open people, we got stops. It's what we're capable of doing for 40 minutes — we just didn't do it."
The Spartans' lead ballooned to 12, 48-36, within the first 4:30 of the second half, as Lucas-Perry scored nine of her 20 points in that span.
Unfortunately for MSU, that would be the last time Lucas-Perry would score.
Purdue, energized by a biased crowd at Conseco Fieldhouse, chipped away at the Spartans' lead, eventually taking a 52-50 lead 6:37 later on Gearlds' 3-pointer.
"It was a road game, completely," McCallie said. "I mean, it's home-court advantage for Purdue, without question. Always has been."
The Boilermakers jumped out to an eight-point lead with less than five minutes to play, but MSU went on a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to one, 62-61 with 1:37 to play.
And that was as close as the Spartans got, as Wisdom-Hylton hit a jumper from the wing with 1:06 to play to provide the final margin.
Outside of Gearlds' second-half performance, what hurt MSU most was on the glass — the Boilermakers outrebounded the Spartans, 40-30.
"They wanted it more than us," DeHaan said. "We just didn't want it as much as they did."
Erin Lawless led Purdue with 18 points, while Wisdom-Hylton notched a double-double with 12 points and 14 rebounds.
DeHaan scored 16 points for MSU, while senior guard Rene Haynes had 13.
The Spartans will find out their placement in the NCAA Tournament at 8 p.m. tonight on ESPN. Regardless of seeding, they will play at Breslin Center.
