Purdue Outlasts Iowa In Big 10 Battle

Several factors contributed to the Boilermakers’ struggles in the first half, which saw them trail the Hawkeyes, 34-31, at the break.

Most notable was the Iowa players’ ability to find the open man for a clear shot quite often in the opening twenty minutes. Crisp ball movement and making the extra pass had Purdue defenders scrambling to find the open man. More often than not, they were late in their closeouts of Hawkeye shooters, which led to Iowa nailing seven of their 10 attempts from distance in the opening stanza.

Another variable for Purdue’s first-half malaise was that their two main big men, Trey Kaufman-Renn and Oscar Cluff, were saddled with foul trouble. Each player logged only seven of the 20 minutes of court time. Kaufman-Renn sat out the final 12:51 of the half, and Cluff sat out the final eight minutes.

Despite that, the Boilermakers actually held a 29-26 advantage with 5:22 remaining after Cox drilled a mid-range jumper. From there, Purdue made only one of their last nine field goal attempts and trailed by three at the break.

Smith And Purdue Bench Rescue The Boilers

To show that his first-half output was a fluke, Smith drilled his first two attempts of the second half. Two traditional three-point plays from Kaufman-Renn followed that, and after his second at 16:47 to go in the game, Purdue led, 39-38.

Iowa hung tough and proved they were worthy of the upset bid. After the Kaufman-Renn six-point barrage, Hawkeye guard Bennett Stirtz steadied the Iowa ship with a three-pointer of his own, putting them up 41-39. That began a 10-0 run for the Hawkeyes, and the Boilermakers were on the wrong end of the 48-39 score with 14:35 remaining.

From there, the Mackey Arena crowd got what they came to see. Purdue went on a 16-4 run over the next five minutes and took over the lead at 55-52. Stirtz quieted the Paint Crew once again with a shot from distance to quell the run, tying the score at 55 with 8:52 to go.

Both teams traded haymakers and red-hot shooting. For a four-minute stretch late in the second half, both teams combined for 11 straight successful field-goal attempts.

When Fletcher Loyer converted two free throws with 3:18 left, Purdue was finally able to extend their modest lead to five at 69-64. To that point, that was their largest of the game. The undaunted Hawkeyes stayed within arm’s length on their next possession when Tavion Banks banked in a three-pointer. Cox replied with a cold-blooded three of his own with 1:57 left, and Iowa drew no closer the rest of the way.

Purdue’s bench provided a brilliant spark to the offensive effort. They outscored the Iowa reserves 21-10, led by Daniel Jacobsen and Jack Benter, who scored seven and six points, respectively.

Boilermakers’ head coach Matt Painter felt that not falling behind by a large margin at that point was crucial to the game’s outcome, which was a result of Purdue’s depth.

“JB (Benter) sticking those two “threes” and Daniel getting seven rebounds really helped us,” he said. “You have to be able to have depth for the other guys to step up.”

End Of My Purdue Rant: The Boilers Are Becoming “Battle-Tested”

Enjoying a top-five ranking has its perks along with some challenges. As stated, Purdue is going to get every opponent’s best attempts at being David to slay Goliath and notch a signature upset.

One of the positive byproducts of this is that Purdue is and will continue to gain the experiences needed to play and succeed in March. They should enter tournament play having lived through all kinds of challenging obstacles along the way, and that can only help their championship aspirations.

Up next for Purdue is a two-game swing to California. They will battle USC on Saturday before invading Pauley Pavilion on Tuesday to take on UCLA.