Matt Painter gives Illinois’ Keaton Wagler ‘most impressive’ compliment after 46-point performance

Matt Painter gives Illinois’ Keaton Wagler ‘most impressive’ compliment after 46-point performance appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Illinois Fighting Illini delivered one of its most stunning road wins in recent memory on Saturday, knocking off No. 4 the Purdue Boilermakers 88-82 inside Mackey Arena behind a historic scoring explosion from freshman guard Keaton Wagler.

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Wagler poured in 46 points, the most ever scored by an opponent in Mackey Arena, leading the No. 11 Illinois basketball team to their ninth straight win and eighth Big Ten victory of the season. The performance was so overwhelming that it drew rare, glowing praise from Purdue head coach Matt Painter — even in defeat. After the game, Painter acknowledged both Wagler’s shot-making and the difficulty of defending him once he found a rhythm.

“Well, first of all, just an impressive performance. He was fabulous,” said Painter, via Fox College Hoops. “He has the ability with his step backs to even in switches, he’s going to take you, and then just pull back and just get himself into a great rhythm. And that’s something we talked about. And he hit a lot of tough shots over us, obviously. But hats off to him. That was probably the most impressive performance. Evan Turner came in here one time and played pretty well. That’s probably one the most impressive performance, if not the most impressive performance we’ve had in Mackey Arena from an opponent.”