Purdue Boilermakers head coach Matt Painter reacts during the first half against the High Point Panthers / Eric Canha-Imagn Images

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — There were some scary moments on Thursday, but Purdue escaped the first round of the NCAA Tournament with a victory. The Boilermakers defeated High Point 75-63, advancing to the second round of March Madness.

Purdue was led by Trey Kaufman-Renn and Braden Smith, scoring 21 points and 20 points, respectively. Camden Heide recorded the first double-double of his career with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Following the game, coach Matt Painter spoke with reporters about the game. Here’s everything he had to say.

Painter: I thought it was a hard-played game. Anytime you play somebody that wins their league and tournament and is on a 14-game winning streak, you know they’re going to have a high competitive spirit, so I thought High Point really played hard. I thought we did a good job defensively. I thought our guys really gave a great effort on the defensive end, but I thought the game was won just in the possession battles. We had so many more possessions than they did. Our guys were great on the glass. We’ve been inconsistent this year in rebounding. We’ll kind of come in and out of it. We’ll have a game where it’s pretty good and the next game it’s not. You look at it from a personnel standpoint sometimes, but I thought our ability to rebound and have 19 offensive rebounds probably ends up being the defense.

We like the shots we’re getting. Didn’t make as many as we would like to make. But I liked our effort, I thought we got great production from our bench. Everybody that came in off of our bench gave us something and helped us win the game. Gicarri Harris didn’t play much and came in and got a double double. Will Berg finishes with a basket and did some good things defensively. Myles Colvin was solid. He had couple good looks not go down that normally do. We have some young guys who have been there, some guys who have played a lot of games. I was just impressed with our effort and ability to hit the glass.

Painter: Yeah, it’s definitely better to play early. If you have that late game, it’s torture, yeah, for everybody. If you haven’t been through it, I think it would be hard to understand that statement, but if you ask any coach just sitting there all day and you wake up early and you got a 10:10 start, it’s the damnest thing in the world because you have done everything in your power to lead up to this. You start in June and now you get here and you sit there all day. I love the early games, period.

Painter: Yeah, it was better contained in the dribble. I think that’s where we were better tonight. When you talk with Giffa and you talk with Bobby Pettiford and their ability to break you down, and we wanted to be in gaps and help them but then they have great shooters in Benham and Johnson and the kid from Texas tack, D’Maurian Williams and they come to jump stops and they cut off of that. And now, Benham is a late kicker and you can’t get close, you have to stop. You don’t have contact right there so it makes it a very difficult guard. That stood out for us. We rebounded well but our ability to forward the basketball was much better. We’ve been inconsistent in that area this more.

Painter: We talked more in terms of the execution of what we’re running or what we’re trying to stop, hey, just keep your poise and stay with it. Braden gets worked up when people foul him and they don’t call it. Just stay with it, win the game. Like nothing else matters besides winning that competition and winning that drill. The game is no different. No matter what happens, execute, do your job and they understand that. You get into trouble when you don’t move into the next play. We all do. We all get caught into it. The crowd gets into it or it gets to be a close game, you can still do your job. You can feel however the hell you want to feel. You can be depressed or sad or anxious. Do your job, anxious, sad, however the hell you feel, who cares. Do your job.

That’s where people lose the rules. You have rules to what you’re doing defensively and you have things to execute what you run. Continue to do your job and play hard. Don’t worry about anything else. Once you get into all that, you’re done, you’re cooked. I think that experience that we have we’re able to move to the next play and it helps when he hits a turnaround fadeaway, right? That part helps too.

Painter: I think it helps both ways, right? Because we’ve had some tough breaks and we got beat and I had to go home and sit in it for a long time to get to the next year’s tournament and that’s no fun but that’s part of this tournament, right? It’s not the best out of three or the best out of five.

We have felt pretty good in some games about getting to that, maybe outside of a couple of people, but the experiences that they’ve had and really helping out our younger guys and making sure they understand about how the tournament is and how it’s different. They get to feel that.

A lot of times you get to feel it and you don’t move on, right? When you’re able to move on from one game, you hope to use those experiences in the past but I think this is really good to help them get to that next game and feel comfortable.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you for your 

HEIDE GETS DOUBLE-DOUBLE: Earlier this season, Purdue’s Camden Heide had battles with confidence. He’s come a long way this year, recording his first double-double and playing a pivotal role in the Boilers’ win over High Point in the NCAA Tournament. CLICK HERE

BOILER BANTER: Purdue has allowed many leads to slip away over the last month. It almost happened again on Thursday in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament against High Point. This time, though, the Boilermakers found a way to weather the storm. CLICK HERE

PURDUE GAME STORY: No. 4-seed Purdue grabbed 19 offensive rebounds, and all those extra possessions helped the Boilermakers knock off High Point 75-63 in their first-round NCAA Tournament game Thursday in Providence, R.I. Trey Kaufman-Renn had 21 points, and Braden Smith added 20. CLICK HERE

COLVIN, HEIDE BIG DUNKS: Purdue wings Myles Colvin and Camden Heide had two ferocious putback slams in the first half of Thursday’s NCAA Tournament game against High Point. CLICK HERE

NCAA TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE TRACKER: Here is our bracket story, with dates, game times, TV information and more for every game in the NCAA Tournament. Follow along in real time with updates throughout all 16 games on Thursday. CLICK HERE