In a game against the highest ranked team this season, perhaps after Tuesday night’s game, the Boilermakers found out that they’re not quite ready for the prime time.
In Iowa’s Big Ten opener, the Hawkeyes dug in as the conference’s highest ranked team with a convincing win, 70-55, over the Boilermakers. In the Big Ten preseason media poll, Iowa (7-1) was picked by the coaches to finish second behind Illinois. Iowa’s only loss this season was against top-ranked Gonzaga.
Purdue (6-3) had already opened its Big Ten schedule with a win over No. 22 Ohio State on Dec. 16 and kept pace with the Hawkeyes through most of the opening half. But the Hawkeyes closed the half with a 14-4 run to take a ten-point halftime lead and continued to build their lead in the second half.
The Boilers’ have struggled with their shooting this season away from Mackey Arena and Tuesday night’s game was no exception. While the Hawkeyes strongly finished the first half, the Boilers shot only 34 percent from the field.
“When you get quality shots and they don’t go down, which that happened at times, you know you live with it, but when you end up getting tough shots and one-on-one plays, you’re not going to have a lot of success that way,” said coach Matt Painter following the game.
Ball security was an issue for the Boilermakers as the Hawkeyes scored 20 points off 14 Purdue turnovers. “I felt like we did ourselves in, didn’t concentrate, and weren’t detail oriented,” said Painter.
Junior Trevion Williams led Purdue in scoring with 14 and freshman guard Brandon Newman added 11 points and a season-high eight rebounds.
Iowa center Luka Garza had a game-high 22 points and junior guard Joe Wieskamp chipped in 17. As a team, Iowa had 21 assists on 24 made field goals.
Purdue will return home to Mackey Arena on Christmas evening against the Maryland Terrapins.
‘Tis the season to be jolly.
