Purdue Beat Down Leaves IU Dazed and Confused

    The Top Excel H Sports Ranked Purdue Boilermakers handed the Indiana Hoosiers a 79-59 loss Saturday night at a sold-out Mackey Arena in West Lafayette. Purdue beat the Hoosiers in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall 87-66 on January 16. Purdue leads the all-time series 127-92 and sweeps the series for the first time since 2021. Purdue is 22-2 overall and leads the Big Ten at 11-2 with 7 games remaining as they will host Minnesota on Thursday Night. Indiana drops to 14-10 overall and 6-7 in the Big Ten and will have a week to get ready for Northwestern at home next Sunday afternoon which is the only Big Ten team that Indiana Head Coach Mike Woodson has not gotten a win against as the Hoosiers head coach.

Reigning National Player of the Year, Zach Edey led the way with 26 points and 13 rebounds and for the first time his career he hit a three pointer in just his second career attempt after missing one against Eastern Kentucky on December 29, 2023, Edey was at the top of the key with a defender guarding him and he decided to take it and banked it in with 6:35 left in the game sending the home crowd into a frenzy. The 7-4 300 pounder from Toronto went 7-15 from the field, 1-1 from three-point range and 11-16 from the field. Edey had 4 assists, 2 blocks, 1 steal and committed 1 turnover.

 

  Photo by: Tony Harper/Excel H Sports/Indiana Sports Network

  Braden Smith brung it tonight, as he added 19 points and simply dominated the Indiana guards.

 Purdue finished the game 25-59 from the field for 42%, 8-21 from three-point range for 38% and 21-33 from the free throw line for 63%. The Boilermakers pulled down 46 rebounds, dished out 12 assists, 10 steals, 9 blocks and committed 3 turnovers.

C.J. Gunn scored 13 points off the bench for Indiana. Mackenize Mgbako added 12 points, Kel’el Ware added 11 points and 8 rebounds along with 10 points.

Senior Trey Galloway added 10 points and a team high seven assists.

Leading scorer Malik Reneau was held to 6 points and 5 rebounds. Anthony Walker added 6 points off the bench and Payton Sparks had 1 point. Gabe Cupps and Anthony Leal did not score as Cupps committed 1 turnover starting in place of Xavier Johnson who remains out with an elbow injury. The Hoosiers finished 23-55 shooting for 41 % from the field, 4-16 from three-point range for 25% and 9-15 from the free throw line for 60%. The Hoosiers had 31 rebounds, dished out 15 assists, 5 steals, 2 blocks and committed 12 turnovers.

The game went back and forth for the six and half minutes as the Hoosiers led 12-11 with 13:44 left in the first half. Braden Smith’s layup at the 13:28 mark gave Purdue the lead at 13-12 as the Boilermakers never trailed for the rest of the game. The Hoosiers got it with one on two occasions when Trey Galloway made a jumper with 11:02 left to make it 15-14 and Reneau got a layup with 10:13 left to make it 17-16. Purdue outscored Indiana 20-8 to go into the locker room up 37-25 at halftime.

In the second half Purdue outscored the Hoosiers 42-34 as Purdue extended the lead to 22 at 47-25 with 15:47 left when Lance Jones hit a three pointer. Indiana could get no closer than 18 points the rest of the way. Purdue led 61-35 with 9:57 to give them their largest lead of the game to that point at 24. With 7:44 left Braden Smith’s jumper made it 65-39 giving Purdue a 26-point lead which was the largest of the game. Indiana cut it to 18 with 2:44 left in the game but Purdue increased it back to 20 to close out the game.

The Hoosiers have had four losses by over 20 points or more and seven by double digits. Indiana is 2-5 in true road game this season. After this team was down 18 Tuesday night at Ohio State and came back to win by three points. There was an expectation that going into the Purdue game they were going to show a little more than they did back in January. Purdue made sure that did not happen and got revenge last year when the Hoosiers swept the season series.