Mason Gillis Catches Fire, Fuels No. 1 Purdue Basketball in Win Over Penn State

By AshuSuman          

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Purdue junior forward Mason Gillis scored a career-high 29 points and went 9-of-12 from the 3-point line in an 80-60 victory against Penn State on Wednesday at Mackey Arena.

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It felt as though Mason Gillis couldn’t miss, and as he kept putting the basketball through the net, the reverberated chants of his name filled the air inside Mackey Arena.

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t doesn’t feel like I did anything different than other games. I just hit a couple shots and they kept falling

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Gillis said. “I think sometimes I hesitate to take some of the shots that I took today. I kind of just proved to myself that I can do it in-game.

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I do it every single day, so there’s no reason I can’t make shots. Sometimes it’s more of a self-confidence thing, I kind of hesitate.

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Entering Wednesday’s matchup, Penn State led the Big Ten in 3-point shot attempts, hitting on an average of 10.7 per game. Senior forward Michael Henn appeared ready to continue that trend and light up the scoreboard for the Nittany Lions in the early minutes.

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Gillis, a 32.1% 3-point shooter this season, was 4-of-7 from beyond the arc and the catalyst for Purdue leading by as many as 12 points in the opening period. But that advantage was cut to six as Penn State made five of its last seven shots heading into halftime.

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Rewarded for his first-half efforts, Gillis got the start over sophomore forward Caleb Furst when the two teams took the floor again. He returned the favor by scoring the first 11 points for the Boilermakers after the break, kickstarting a dominant 21-2 run.

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 Purdue junior guard Ethan Morton said of Gillis. “He’s the epitome of just doing your job no matter what’s going on. I told him everyone is acting like this is unbelievable, I’ve seen him do this for three years

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“Mason says it almost every day in practice. One day at a time, we’re one step closer to our goal,” Morton said. “Our first of three goals is a Big Ten championship, and then we work from there.

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