WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue coach Gene Keady said on Monday that the injured Kenneth Lowe might be able to play against Northwestern on Wednesday night, but that he wouldn’t be starting.

Well, he started, and he almost single-handedly won the game.

Lowe, a 6-foot-3 guard, contributed 20 points — more than half of Purdue’s total — in a 40-39 NU win at the Boilermakers’ Mackey Arena on Wednesday.

The guard has been injury-prone throughout his career. During the offseason, Lowe had surgery on both of his shoulders, and he recently sat out the last three games after going down with a left elbow sprain against Indiana on Jan. 27.

But Lowe was the 2002-03 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, and he leads Purdue (15-8, 5-5 Big Ten) in scoring with 14.1 points per game.

“What more can you say about him?” said Purdue forward Matt Kiefer after the game. “He always steps up and scores a lot for us.”

Even when he comes up big, Lowe feels responsible for his team’s shortcomings.

“Coach has faith and confidence that I can go out there and play,” Lowe said. “I’m just sorry I didn’t have enough to produce and win for him after he had that confidence in me.”

The senior might not have won the game, but he certainly produced.

On a night when the rest of Purdue’s squad finished 0-for-10 from behind the arc, Lowe hit four of five three-point attempts.

“He filled in and stepped up,” NU senior Jitim Young said. “He shot threes that others would have shot, but weren’t making.”

Lowe shot perfectly from the free-throw line, making 2-of-2, and he landed 7-of-11 from the field.

“Kenny played alright,” Keady said. “Coming back from the elbow injury that he had, it takes guts to play like that.”

Lowe showed his skills early on, scoring the first basket of the game with a three-pointer just 24 seconds into the contest. He slowed down after that and finished the first half with just five points.

But in the last six minutes of the game, Lowe came back. Big.

With 6:15 to go, Lowe drove hard through the lane, pulling Purdue within one point of the lead. The guard followed up on the Boilermakers’ next drive, hitting a three-pointer and putting them on top, 34-32.

Lowe regained the lead for Purdue twice more in the final four minutes of the contest, once with a driving bank-shot and once with another three-pointer.

For a while, the senior seemed unstoppable.

“I was just thinking, ‘Man, he’s on fire,'” NU senior Jitim Young said. “We were late adjusting to him, because you usually don’t play Kenneth Lowe for his shots. He made big-time shots.”

With less than 30 seconds to play and NU up 40-39, the Wildcats (10-11, 5-5) covered Lowe and forced him to attempt a three-pointer. It didn’t fall.

Still, scoring more than half of the team’s points in a Big Ten contest is a feat in itself.

“We were more patient on offense, and the point guards were getting me the ball,” Lowe said. “I had the opportunities to score.”