WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana – The University of Iowa men’s basketball team fell to No. 4 Purdue, 87-68, on Monday evening at Mackey Arena in its Big Ten opener.
Iowa shot 31% in the first half shooting 10-of-32 from the field and 1-of-9 from beyond the arc. Purdue out rebounded Iowa 25-15 in the first 20-minutes of play. Senior Tony Perkins led the way for the Hawkeyes in the first half scoring nine points and pulling in four rebounds. Purdue led 45-24 at the break.
Graduate student Ben Krikke was Iowa’s leading scorer pouring in 16 points on an efficient 7-of-13 shooting from the field. Krikke pulled in seven rebounds. Payton Sandfort added nine points, four rebounds, and four assists.
Iowa finished the game shooting 25-of-65 (38%) from the field and 6-of-18 (33%) from deep.
Purdue was able to build on their lead early in the second half. The Hawkeyes shot 56% from beyond the arc in the second half but were unable to narrow the gap. Purdue was led by Zach Edey who finished with 25 points and 12 rebounds.
HEAR FROM HEAD COACH FRAN MCCAFFERY
“Well, I got to keep getting those young guys some minutes. They got quality minutes tonight. I think they learned. There’s just no substitute for that unless you play in this environment against a team of that caliber. You figure out what you can do and what doesn’t work. Our offense got really easy and west. That’s a credit to the defense and the pressure. We were trying to move it and get some shot opportunities, but we just got way to east and west and not enough north and south.”
“It’s a really terrific group of young guys. We have veteran guys in there that are going to take care of that. We didn’t do some things that we thought we could try to do. Let’s try to do them better, let’s watch the film, let’s try to get better, and be better on Thursday night. We have to be moving forward. The teams that we play in this league, and obviously, the next two games have athletes like this team. We have to do a better job executing our stuff and rebounding the ball.”
“[Purdue] isn’t a one man show at all. They have shooters, they have drivers, they have size. They stretch your defense in ways that makes it very difficult. I thought we could do better than we did. We really worked hard this week. But I think you have to give credit to that team collectively.”
HAWKEYE NOTABLES
- Two of Iowa’s three losses have come against top 10 ranked opponents on the road.
- Graduate Ben Krikke paced the team in scoring, finishing with 16 points on 7-of-13 shooting to go along with a team-best seven rebounds.
- He has reached double figures in all eight games and has led/tied for the team lead in scoring four times.
- Senior Tony Perkins finished with 12 points on 5-of-14 shooting with six rebounds.
- Iowa had two players reach double figures — a season low.
- The Boilermakers were +10 on the glass in the first half and +6 for the game, outrebounding the Hawkeyes, 41-35.
- Purdue outscored Iowa, 50-34 in the paint.
UP NEXT
Iowa returns to action Thursday, traveling to Ames, Iowa, for an Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series matchup at Iowa State. Game time is set for 6:30 p.m. (CT) from Hilton Coliseum.
