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WVU to Play Purdue in Basketball Hall of Fame Quadruple-Header

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In March it was reported that West Virginia basketball would play Purdue in a New York City Event this coming December. Today it was announced that the event will be the Basketball Hall of Fame Invitational, which will feature eight teams playing at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on Sunday, December 13.

The entire event will be a quadruple-header, featuring matchups between Penn State and Florida, WVU and Purdue, Stanford and Georgia Tech and Army and Princeton.

Purdue finished the 2019-20 season with a 16-15 record, going 9-11 in the Big 10. The Boilermakers dropped five of their last seven games of the season and would have faced Ohio State in the first round of the Big 10 tournament.

West Virginia is just 1-7 all-time against Purdue, winning in 2011 68-64. Purdue defeated WVU in all five meetings before that victory and in the two meetings since, 79-52 in Jan. 2013 and again 73-70 in Dec. 2013.

“I have a lot of respect for Paint (Purdue coach Matt Painter) and the job he has done at Purdue. Since I’ve been at West Virginia, we have played Purdue four times and another three times in closed scrimmages,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said in a release. “Anytime you have the opportunity to play a team like Purdue and the opportunity to play in a special non-conference event, you jump on it. We love playing in New York and our fans love when we play in New York.”

Purdue’s top returners this season will be a trio of returning juniors, Trevion Williams, Eric Hunter Jr. and Sasha Stefanovic.

Williams led the team in scoring and rebounding this season, averaging 11.5 points and 7.6 boards per game. Hunter and Stefanovic were the team’s best three-point shooters. Hunter averaged 10.6 points per game and shot 35.9% (42-for-117) from three. Stefanovic averaged 9.1 points and shot 38.3% (64-167) form three.

“We are excited to face West Virginia in the Basketball Hall of Fame Invitational, adding another great opponent to our schedule,” Painter said in a release. “We have a lot of respect for Bob Huggins and his program and we know it will be a big challenge for our squad.”

The Boilermakers had four wins over ranked opponents last season, defeating Iowa twice, Michigan State and VCU.

WVU other non-conference opponents this season include Fairleigh Dickinson, Pitt, Stony Brook, Bowling Green, Robert Morris, Youngstown State and Miami (Ohio).

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