Purdue Races Past Hawkeyes

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Jan. 9, 2011

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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Iowa men’s basketball team’s Big Ten road opener didn’t end as it had hoped, as No. 10 Purdue raced past the Hawkeyes, 75-52, on Sunday afternoon at Mackey Arena.

The Boilermakers opened the contest scoring the first 11 points before taking a 34-20 lead into the locker room. Purdue then broke the game open in the second half, stretching its lead to as many as 30 (71-41) before cruising to the 23-point victory.

“I was disappointed in our turnovers in the first half,” said UI head coach Fran McCaffery. “Maybe it was their physical play, maybe it was our decision-making. We came apart in the beginning and couldn’t make a basket. We got it to the rim twice, we had a couple of clean looks at it, but we also had a few turnovers.

“We fall behind 11-0 and I thought we came back then. We came off the floor thinking `boy we can’t play much worse’ and we’re only down 14, we had the last shot (of the half) — could have been 12, could have been 11 and I felt pretty good about it.

“The second half was disappointing. We didn’t play with the level of competitiveness that you need to play to beat the 10th ranked team on the road, plain and simple. That’s something we need to learn and get better at.”

After falling behind 11-0 to start the game, the Hawkeyes scored six straight points behind a Jarryd Cole jumper, two Melsahn Basabe free throws and a Zach McCabe jumper. From there, Purdue followed with an 18-6 run to push its lead to 17 (29-12) with 4:20 to go in the half.

The Boilermakers stretched their lead to 18 (34-16), but Iowa scored the final four points of the half on jumpers by McCabe and Matt Gatens to head into the locker room down 14 (34-20).

Coming out of the break, Eric May connected on the triple from the corner to get the Hawkeyes to within 11 (34-23), but Purdue’s Ryne Smith answered with a long ball at the 19:11 mark. Iowa then trailed by 12 at 37-25 and 40-28 before the Boilermakers pulled away.

Purdue used an 8-1 run to stretch its lead to 20 (49-29) behind baskets JuJuan Johnson and E’Twaun Moore. The advantage then swelled to as many as 30 points (71-41). The Hawkeyes scored 11-of-the-final-15 points to cut into the deficit before falling 75-52.

Gatens was the only Hawkeye player in double digits, finishing with 13 points on 4-of-10 shooting. Junior Devon Archie was the game’s top rebounder, pulling in eight in 20 minutes off the bench. Overall, Iowa shot just 36.5 (19-52) percent from the floor and 28.6 (2-7) percent from long range in the contest.

Four Boilermaker players reached double figures with Smith leading the way with 18 points on six three-pointers. Purdue’s dynamic duo of JuJuan Johnson and Moore, meanwhile, combined for 27 points and 12 rebounds.

The Hawkeyes (7-8, 0-3) will return to the hardwood on Wednesday night when they host Northwestern at 7:35 p.m. at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. It is “Jarryd Cole Bobblehead Night” at the Arena with the first 2,000 fans receiving the Hawkeye memento.