#7 Excel H Sports Ranked Boilermakers Hand the Hoosiers a Big Time Spanking in Mackey Arena
Story by: Nick Jenkinson/Excel H Sports
Photos by: Greg Flint/Excel H Sports/Flint Photography

#7 Excel H Sports Ranked Purdue Boilermakers led wire to wire Friday Night in a 93-64 win over their in-state rivals the Indiana Hoosiers in a sold-out Mackey Arena in West Lafayette. Purdue leads the all-time series 129-94 and has won 17 of the last 23 meetings dating back to the 2013-14 season. The two programs have split the last ten meetings 5-5 since 2021-22 season. Purdue has won 10 of the last 11 meetings against Indiana at Mackey Arena and this was the 11th straight time Purdue has been ranked when facing the Hoosiers at home as the Boilermakers are 18-4 as ranked team against Indiana.
Purdue was coming off its third home loss of the season against top ranked Michigan Tuesday Night. The Boilers connected beyond the arc with Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer hitting back-to-back triples to give Purdue a 6-0 lead to start the game. Tucker DeVries hit a three to get Indiana on the scoreboard, but Purdue extended the lead to 21-12 with 8:44 left in the first half. Purdue led 46-29 at half as the trio of Trey Kaufman-Renn, Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer had 37 of the teams 46 points.


Indiana was hit with foul trouble in the first half as Conor Enright and Nick Dorn picked up three fouls each in the first half. Lamar Wilkerson, Sam Alexis and Reed Bailey picked up two fouls each as the Hoosiers had 15 first half fouls and Purdue went 12-15 from the line for 80%. Indiana was 4-7 from the free throw line for 57% as the Boilermakers committed 8 fouls in the opening half. Purdue outscored Indiana 47-35 in the second half.

Omar Mayer, who had 4 points for Purdue in the first half scored 14 in the second half, going 4-4 from beyond the arc and 5-5 from the field as Purdue led by as many by 34 points 87-53 with 5:11 left in the game. Conor Enright fouled out for the Hoosiers with 3 points, 2 assists and 2 rebounds. Mayer the Freshman from Tel Aviv Israel finished with 18 points off the bench as Purdue put four in double figures as they combined for 71 of the 93 points.
Trey Kaufman-Renn led the Boilermakers with 20 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists. Braden Smith scored 15 points and dished out 8 assists. Fletcher Loyer scored 18 points. Purdue finished 33-51 from the field for 64%, 10-18 from three-point range for 55% and 17-25 from the free throw line for 68%. Purdue had 30 rebounds, 24 assists, 6 steals, 1 block and 7 turnovers. The Boilermakers scored 34 points in the paint, 32 bench points, 16 points off turnovers, 13 second chance points and 2 fastbreak points.

Lamar Wilkerson scored 20 points to lead Indiana, Tayton Conerway added 12 points, Tucker DeVries added 11 points, and Reed Bailey scored 10 points for the Hoosiers as the four combined for 53 of the teams 64 points. Sam Alexis scored 5 points along with 3 points apiece from Conor Enright and Jasai Miles. Indiana was 24-46 from the field for 52%, 7-20 from three-point range for 35% and 9-15 from the free throw line for 60%. The Hoosiers had 15 rebounds, 13 assists, 2 steals, no blocks and 11 turnovers. Indiana scored 28 points in the paint, 25 bench points, 8 points off turnovers, 2 fastbreak points and zero second chance points.

Purdue is 22-5 overall and 12-4 in the Big Ten and will host Michigan State on Thursday Night at 8 PM. Purdue travels to Ohio State and Northwestern before they close out the regular season at home with Wisconsin. “I thought this was a great bounce back for our guys,” Purdue head basketball coach Matt Painter said. “Not being able to win a Big Ten Championship is tough, but we’re the ones that lost the games, so we have to try to get better and try to improve… because it’s hard to take.” For the trio of Braden Smith, Trey Kaufman-Renn and Fletcher Loyer they close out what is presumably their final game against Indiana with a 4-4 record and did not want to lose at home. “It’s nice to get a win and obviously by that margin, but I think for us, that’s our expectation for every game that we play,” Smith said. “Obviously, that’s not always the turnout, but that’s always what we strive for and try to do. I think it was just a good response from us.”
Indiana is 17-10 overall and 8-8 in the Big Ten. The Hoosiers have their next three games at home with Northwestern Tuesday Night followed by Michigan State and Minnesota before closing out the regular season at Ohio State. Indiana has struggled in these last two road games, but the Hoosiers still have chance to build their resume for the NCAA Tournament to win three at home and get to the 20-win mark. Indiana knew how hard this game was going to be after winning the first matchup 72-67 in January in Bloomington. “Nights like these are hard,” Indiana head coach Darian DeVries said. “Everyone knows how good Purdue is. When they are playing at a level like this, it makes it incredibly challenging… They did everything they needed to do to put us in some tough spots.”
The Hoosiers know that they must put this one behind them and get ready for Northwestern and they are fully aware of what is on the line going forward. “We’re playing for a lot right now,” Tucker DeVries said. “I think it’s important that there’s not much we can do right now about this previous game, but we can learn from it and move on to the next one and use this to get ready for the next four games that are massive for us.”

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