The Marquette Golden Eagles used stifling defense and a triple double from Kam Jones to knock off the 6th ranked Boilermakers 76-58. For Purdue, this game came to Marquette’s big 3 for Kam Jones, Stevie Mitchell, and Chase Ross outplaying Purdue’s big 3 of Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer, and Trey Kaufman-Renn.

Marquette’s length on defense bothered the Boilermakers all game. Braden Smith was aggressive early but was forced into taking high difficulty twos over Golden Eagle defenders. Shaka Smart had his team geared up to stop Smith’s dribble penetration, switching every ball screen, and making it difficult for Purdue’s point guard to turn the corner. He finished the game with a solid 11 points, 4 rebounds, and 9 assists but Purdue needed more than a solid game from their star.

Fletcher Loyer met the same fate as Braden. He finished with 13 points, but struggled to find his shot all game. He had a few open looks early that he couldn’t jar and never looked comfortable against Marquette’s perimeter length. He did a good job of not settling for contested 3’s, but like Smith, struggled to convert high difficulty shots in the paint. The Boilermakers needed a little more from Loyer

Finally, Trey Kaufmann-Renn was a non-factor in the first half, only attempting one shot (which he made). The Boilermakers struggled to find him in the post, with Marquette’s on ball pressure making the entry pass difficult for Purdue’s perimeter players. Coach Painter tried to counter by using a center to enter the ball into the post, with mixed results. TRK came out hungry in the second half and single handedly kept the Boilermakers in the game with a 14-point second half. He led the Boilermakers in scoring with 16 and 8, but everything looked difficult around the basket. It’s hard to complain about a power forward putting up 16 points on 7-10 shooting, but Purdue needed something closer to Trey’s performance in the Alabama game.

Purdue’s Big 3 put up 40 of Purdue’s 58 points, with Camden Heide and Caleb Furst splitting 16 points, and Will Berg chipping in a bucket. Heide looked confident from deep, hitting on 2 of 3 from the outside. Caleb Furst saw his minutes increase substantially in this game, and he paid it off with a hard 8 points and 2 rebounds. Furst often found himself trying to finish inside against Marquette’s bouncy defenders and had a couple shots rejected at the rim. C.J. Cox couldn’t continue his hot start to the season and looked like a true freshman for the first time all season. Myles Colvin didn’t hesitate to shoot but couldn’t find the range from deep. He did contribute a solid 8 rebounds to the cause and played decent defense. Gicarri Harris couldn’t find the range from deep either, missing all 3 of his long-distance attempts despite getting a couple decent looks.

Meanwhile, Marquette dominated with their perimeter size on both side of the court. They bullied Purdue’s guards on defense, often forcing the Boilermaker offense to reset multiple times in a possession. They pressured Purdue into 10 turnovers and blocked 5 shots. Every time it looked like the Boilermakers were primed to make a run; the Golden Eagle defense found a way to get a stop.

On offense, Kam Jones, Chase Ross, and Stevie Mitchell got to the rim whenever they wanted. Purdue’s guards couldn’t stay in front as Marquette’s Big-3 ruthlessly attacked the rim on every possession. Kam Jones, in particular, laid down a marker in the player of the year race, after dominating his matchup against Braden Smith. While Smith was forced into draining wrong footed fade aways, Jones was getting to the rim and either finishing himself or finding an open teammate. If this is the Kam Jones Marquette gets all season, they are going to be one of the favorites to win it all.

As good as Jones was, he didn’t lead his team in scoring, that honor went to Stevie Mitchell who terrorized Purdue in the open court with his bulldozer drives to the hoop. Purdue could not stay in from of Mitchell and as a result, he went 8-8 from the free throw line to help. When he wasn’t scoring at the rim, he was picking off errant Boilermaker passes, finishing with 4 steals on the night, a few of which directly led to easy buckets on the other end.

Purdue had the same problem with Chase Ross as they had with Jones and Mitchell. The 6’5”, 205-pound junior out of Dallas got into the paint at will, scoring 12 points on 5-10 shooting, including a couple of 3-pointers that came at critical moments in the game. His biggest contribution was on defense where he hounded Purdue guards on the perimeter, adding another 4 steals to Marquette’s turnover number.

Not only did Marquette’s Big 3 outplay Purdue’s Big 3; they also found 20 points from the combination of Ben Gold and David Joplin. Gold, in particular, hit 3-spot up 3’s that forced Purdue to stretch their already struggling defense to guard the big Aussie, which gave the Golden Eagle’s Big 3 even more room to operate in the lane.

The score isn’t indicative of the overall game, with Marquette pulling away late over a frustrated and exhausted looking Purdue squad. The Boilermakers had their chances in the second half to make this an interesting game but never seemed to find a shot when they closed the gap to within 5 to 7 points. They held on as long as they could in the 2nd half, but that’s what it looked like on the court, they seemed to be holding on more than pushing for the win. That had plenty to do with Marquette’s smothering perimeter defense that held the normally hot shooting Boilermakers to 6-18 shooting from behind the arc. Purdue is never going to beat a team like Marquette hitting 6, 3-pointers. Credit to Shaka Smart’s team, they ran Purdue off the 3-point line and made the Boilermakers try and beat them inside the arc. Purdue wasn’t up to the task.

At the end of the night, Purdue ran into a bad matchup, on the road, against a good team and got beat soundly. This is still November basketball. It’s clear Purdue needs to figure out a few things on offense, because I’m not sure the defense is going to be anything more than passable this season without a rim protector. I’m not concerned, I expected a few bumps along the way before this time found its identity. Every game is another data point for Coach Painter, and Marquette gave him a few things to consider moving forward on both sides of the court. I’ll be interested to see how (or if) he adjusts moving forward.