Purdue opens Big Ten title defense with a dud at Penn State, another court-storming

Posted by Admin December 6, 2024 Basketball

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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Purdue basketball’s pursuit of a third consecutive Big Ten championship began with a yet another bad performance in a conference road opener.

Penn State clobbered the No. 7 Boilermakers 81-70 at Bryce Jordan Center. The final score flattered the Boilers, who trailed by 27 with under 10 minutes to play. Purdue has now lost six of its past seven conference road games in December.

The Boilermakers fell to 0-2 in true road games, having also lost 76-58 at Marquette. In both instances, turnovers played a role in Purdue’s offensive inefficiency and its opponents’ access to easy points.

Purdue basketball turning point

Purdue’s offense got out of sync early and spent the rest of the first half trying to find a rhythm. It never did. The 14 first-half turnovers were only two fewer than the season high from the season opener against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and one fewer than it coughed up in a loss at Marquette.

Penn State’s halfcourt ball pressure certainly played a role. Fletcher Loyer committed five on his own.

But the Boilermakers also played sloppy, forcing some drives and passes which resulted in takeaways. The empty possessions hurt — Purdue went scoreless for over five minutes in one stretch — but so did the inability to get back and set up a defense. Both teams turned the ball over a lot, but the Nittany Lions capitalized more on their takeaways and executed better in the halfcourt when retaining possession.

On top of that, Braden Smith did not attempt a field goal until the 2:37 mark of the half. He did not make one until the final two minutes of the half.

Penn State scored 15 points off of those turnovers and led 40-24 at halftime.

3 stars

Trey Kaufman-Renn, Purdue: I guess. Turned the ball over five times in the first 28 minutes. Purdue got him the ball early and he drew some fouls, but is not making teams pay enough at the line (4 of 7). Picking him here says a lot about how this night went.

Zach Hicks, Penn State: Hit a couple of big 3-pointers in the first half to help keep the Boilermakers at arm’s length. The sort of tough wing matchup Purdue has, in theory, but which it could never initiate Thursday night.

Puff Johnson, Penn State: Braden Smith and Ace Baldwin, Jr., sort of battled to a messy stalemate. The Nittany Lions got better guard play elsewhere. Johnson finished with 13 points and five assists.

What’s next?

Purdue heads home for a noon Sunday tipoff against Maryland to complete its two-play to open the conference schedule. The Terrapins opened Wednesday by drilling Ohio State, 83-59. They’re 8-1 now and have won five straight since a four-point home loss to Marquette.

Maryland ranks among the best defenses in the country by some metrics. Freshman big man Derik Queen leads the way with 16.6 points, 8.3 rebounds, 1.2 steals and 1.0 blocks.