With three minutes left Thursday, Purdue trailed Michigan by six.
A month earlier, the Boilermakers had trailed Dayton by a point with 40 seconds left.
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, they were down five to Louisville with three minutes remaining.
But Purdue rallied to win each, a distinct reversal from a year ago, when the Boilermakers had all sorts of trouble in close games, finding a variety of ways to nearly lose them all.
Not so now.
“Late-game situations, when we come out on top, it goes to show that we can come back from a (deficit),” said junior Ashley Morrissette, who hit the game-winning three-pointer at Michigan on Thursday. “So if we’re ever down again, we know that we’ve done it before so we can do it again.”
The confident started building in Italy. In Purdue’s August overseas trip, the Boilermakers twice trailed, against Germany and Cameroon, yet found a way to win each game, as the Boilermakers came back Stateside with a 3-0 record.
Considering they had ended last regular-season with 10 straight losses, the wins were welcomed. And that Purdue did so by rallying twice was even better.
Coach Sharon Versyp said the Boilermakers learned they could fight back.
“Even though you’re down by 12, down by six, just chop things away,” Versyp said. “Each play matters, each possession matters, the defense matters, the offensive rebounds matter, so I think the Italy trip has paid off because it showed our grit, it showed our fight.
“Bottom line is that if you can come back and win a game, it just builds your confidence, because you’ve been in that scenario and been successful.”
Morrissette says Purdue hasn’t panicked in difficult situations.
“And just making the smart play, the right play in the game situations,” she said. “And trusting each other, that’s the big thing. We believe in each other that we’re going to do the job. We believe we’re going to get the stop, box out and get the rebound and then come down and make something happen.”
It wasn’t up to snuff in the Boilermakers loss to Boston College, when they allowed forward Mariella Fasoula to score 23 points.
It faces a tough test at 2 p.m. Sunday, in Illinois center Chatrice White. The 6-foot-3 sophomore averages 17.7 points and 9.4 rebounds per game.
“Chatrice White is a handful, she’s phenomenal,” Versyp said. “she can shoot the three, she can take it to the hole, she can sit (on the block). … She has a lot of experience.
“You have to pick your poison (with the Illini). You can’t take away both areas, so are you going to take away the three, are you going to try to do things a little differently with White down low? We’ll do a variation.”
