Purdue men’s basketball fans greeted 17th ranked Iowa with derisive cheers from the moment the Hawkeyes hit the Mackey Arena floor for warmups on Wednesday night. And they never let up after the upset-minded Boilermakers dominated the game, 104-68.
After Iowa opened the scoring 18 seconds into the game on Luka Garza basket, Purdue responded with 17 unanswered points and set the tone.
The Boilermakers built that lead on the foundation from three-point range, and they knocked down a season-high 19 three-pointers. It’s their most since setting a Big Ten record with 20 against the same Hawkeyes two years ago.
“We didn’t plan on shooting that many threes,” said guard Jahaad Proctor, a senior transfer from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. “But they were open and Coach Painter tells us to shoot when we are open.”
Eleven of those three-pointers came in the first half, a major factor in the team’s 61 points in the opening stanza. It’s also the second most in a first half under coach Matt Painter.
The Boilers also got 47 points from players off the bench compared to 24 by Iowa. Proctor and Matt Haarms, a sophomore from The Netherlands, each scored 15 off the bench. They were two of five Boilers in double-figure scoring.
Evan Boudreaux was Purdue’s scoring leader with 18 points and a team-high eight rebounds.
Proctor contributed with 15 points and connected on all six of his shots on the night, including all three of his three-point attempts.
Of Purdue’s 41 field goals, there were 29 assists. The Boilers also kept their turnovers limited to nine after committing 18 against Rutgers two games ago.
Garza, Iowa’s junior center, scored a game-high 26 points, 17 in the opening half.
Purdue will take a bus ride south to Bloomington to play in-state rival Indiana this Saturday.
