Powered by freshman CJ Cox, Purdue basketball stays hot, pummels Nebraska

Posted by author January 12, 2025 Basketball

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WEST LAFAYETTE − Purdue basketball‘s big three is becoming a big problem.

On Sunday afternoon, Boilermaker freshman CJ Cox was a bigger problem for the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

With so much attention to Purdue’s junior trio of Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn, Cox has come into his own.

In Cox’s fourth straight start, he went on a heater, making eight straight shots before a miss and scoring a career-high 23 points to lead No. 19 Purdue over Nebraska 104-68 at Mackey Arena.

It marked the seventh time in 17 career games Cox, a lightly recruited guard out of Massachusetts who coach Matt Painter stumbled on by accident.

Nebraska, which knocked off top-ranked Purdue last season in Lincoln, is now 0-10 at Mackey Arena.

Purdue basketball turning point

Purdue has had a propensity to let inferior teams hang around for too long. Contribute some of that to good looks not falling.

No such case on Sunday.

The Boilermakers used a 14-0 run over a span of 3:29 early to turn a 10-7 lead into 24-7. Trey Kaufman-Renn and Braden Smith combined for 11 of those points that were packaged with a CJ Cox 3-pointer.

Purdue rode that momentum into halftime, shooting 64.3% (18 of 28) in the first half, including 8 of 13 from three.

Boilermakers torch the nets

Purdue’s hot shooting wasn’t limited to the first half.

With Cox as the catalyst and Myles Colvin hitching to his momentum, Purdue pummeled coach Fred Hoiberg’s squad.

Cox was 9 of 11. As a team, Purdue had four players score in double figures and, strangely enough, one of them wasn’t Smith. In addition to Cox, Loyer, Kaufman-Renn and Colvin all had double figures and 13 different Boilermakers scored.

Purdue shot 41 of 65 (63.1%) and 19 of 33 (57.6%) from 3-pointers.

3 stars

CJ Cox, Purdue: His point total speaks for itself. But Cox was active defensively, too. He had two first half steals early while the game was (briefly) in limbo.

Braden Smith, Purdue: On a day where Smith didn’t have to score, he was the ultimate facilitator. Smith had 14 assists and is averaging 11.4 per game over Purdue’s five-game winning streak.

Trey Kaufman-Renn, Purdue: In the first half, Kaufman-Renn was 6 of 7 and put back his only miss. Purdue’s center finished with 15 points on 7 of 9 shooting to go with seven assists and six rebounds.

Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on X and Instagram @samueltking.