Toronto's Zach Edey leads Purdue to 1st Final 4 since 1980 with career-high 40 points vs. Tennessee

Canadian big man Zach Edey went for a career-high 40 points along with 16 rebounds and one big block to muscle the Purdue Boilermakers into the program's first Final Four since 1980 with a 72-66 victory over Tennessee on Sunday in Detroit.

The seven-foot-four centre, from Toronto, willed his way to a win in a back-and-forth thriller between the country's top two players, edging out Tennessee's All-American, Dalton Knecht, who finished with 37 points.

Fittingly for this showdown, Edey swatted away Knecht's layup as the Northern Colorado transfer drove to the basket while trailing by five with 33 seconds left, putting an end to the Vols' desperate comeback hopes.

Top-seeded Purdue (33-4) set aside last year's grand disappointment — a first-round loss as a No. 1 seed — to book the trip to Glendale, Ariz. On Saturday, Edey and the Boilermakers will face big man DJ Burns Jr. and 11th-seeded North Carolina State in the national semifinals.

"We had to take it," Purdue coach Matt Painter said of the abuse that came last year. "Sometimes when you sit in it and you're honest with yourself and you take it, some great things can happen."

ZACH EDEY REJECTS DALTON KNECHT AT THE RIM.<br><br>WOW. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MarchMadness?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MarchMadness</a> <a href="https://t.co/QP1fRsoNcU">pic.twitter.com/QP1fRsoNcU</a>

Tennessee (27-9), a No. 2 seed, was seeking its first Final Four, and Vols coach Rick Barnes was denied the second trip of his 38-year career to college basketball's biggest stage.

This was a scrapfest of a game played in front of an ear-splitting crowd packed with Purdue fans who made their way up from Indiana.

With the school's 87-year-old former coach, Gene Keady, sitting in