Purdue men’s basketball dropped to 0-2 for the first time since the 1976-77 season after a stunning 83-80 double-overtime loss against Valparaiso at Mackey Arena on Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. Valparaiso guard Justus McNair sealed the victory by sinking a contested 3-pointer as time expired in the second extra period.
Rakim Chaney Forces Double Overtime with Corner Three
The finish in West Lafayette featured a frantic sequence of late-game heroics. Valparaiso forced the first overtime when Rakim Chaney grabbed an offensive rebound off a missed free throw, dribbled to the corner, and nailed a heavily contested 3-pointer to send the game to double overtime. Purdue had taken a 70-67 lead with 6.8 seconds remaining in that first extra session and intended to foul Chaney rather than allow a game-tying perimeter shot.
WHAT A FINISH! Justus McNair delivers a buzzer-beating triple to seal the @ValpoBasketball win pic.twitter.com/V6TA5ORuhZ
After the game, Matt Painter pointed directly to that defensive breakdown in his post-game conference, noting that the Boilermakers failed to secure the loose ball after the intentional foul on the miss.
You gotta be able to get that rebound. You gotta be able to squeeze that and chase that ball down and give it to Chaney. Give Chaney credit. He went and got the ball; he had the wherewithal to get behind the line and obviously make that shot. So yeah, it was not something that we discussed, right? We were gonna foul. We weren’t gonna let them make that three.
Matt Painter, Purdue coach
In the second overtime, Purdue’s Daniel Jacobsen tied the score at 80-80 with 4.4 seconds remaining. But Valparaiso quickly pushed the ball up the court, setting up McNair’s decisive buzzer-beater.
The home team initially built a dominant advantage, jumping out to a 19-4 lead in the first half while holding the visitors to only two field goals across the opening twenty minutes. During that stretch, Purdue committed just two turnovers before halftime. However, the offense stalled significantly after the break, and Valparaiso gradually chipped away until evening the score at 48 points with five and a half minutes remaining in regulation.
Rakim Chaney put up 35 points while Purdue’s Caden Pierce and Omer Mayer combined for just four. Princeton transfer Caden Pierce logged 41 minutes of action and scored two points on 1-of-5 shooting. Painter, who is in his 22nd season at Purdue, has traditionally built his rosters primarily through high school recruiting rather than relying heavily on the transfer portal.
Purdue Suffers First Zero-Two Start Since Nineteen Seventy-Six
The upset delivered several unwanted historical milestones for the program. Purdue opened its schedule with a 78-72 defeat against Gonzaga in Las Vegas, making this the program’s first 0-2 start since the 1976-77 campaign. The loss also ended a winning streak against Missouri Valley Conference opponents, marking Purdue’s first defeat to an MVC foe at Mackey Arena since 1978, when the Boilermakers fell to an Indiana State team led by Larry Bird.
For Valparaiso, the victory marked the program’s first win over a Big Ten opponent since defeating Penn State in 2004. The win came in a buy game for which Purdue paid $90,000 to host the Beacons.
The Boilermakers are managing a major roster transition after losing four starters from their 2025-26 Elite Eight lineup, including four-year starting guards Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer, along with forward Trey Kaufman-Renn. Rakim Chaney led all scorers with 35 points, eight rebounds, and six assists on 14-of-22 shooting before fouling out in the second overtime. Painter praised the guard’s standout performance after the buzzer, noting that everything we were worried about was Chaney; I thought he was fabulous.
Daniel Jacobsen led Purdue with 28 points and 10 rebounds in a career-best performance, but the 7-foot-4 center’s effort was undermined by the team’s 5-of-28 shooting from beyond the arc and 11 turnovers. The Boilermakers look to rebound when they host Illinois State on Monday.