No. 13 Purdue keeps Iowa at bay, cruises to victory

Four players scored in double figures and No. 13 Purdue clamped down on Iowa during a 78-57 Big Ten Conference win Saturday in Iowa City.

C.J. Cox led the balanced Boilermakers (21-4, 11-3) with 14 points, connecting on four of their 12 3-pointers. Reserve Gicarri Harris also scored 14, while Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn each added 12 points in Purdue’s fourth straight win.

Kaufman-Renn hauled in 12 rebounds, including 11 in the first half, while teammate Braden Smith dished out 12 assists to give him 980 for his career. Smith is 97 assists away from passing Bobby Hurley for the all-time NCAA record.

Bennett Stirtz scored a game-high 19 points for the Hawkeyes (18-7, 8-6), who fell to 0-5 against ranked opponents this season. Stirtz made 7 of 11 field goals but the rest of his teammates hit just 13 of 42.

Purdue owned an 11-point halftime lead and wasted little time expanding it. Loyer converted a three-point play and Smith hit a layup, forcing Iowa coach Ben McCollum to call a timeout just 1:48 into the second half with the Boilermakers up by 16.

Cox and Jack Benter combined to score 11 consecutive points for the Boilermakers, upping the advantage to an insurmountable 58-31 advantage after Benter’s layup with 12 minutes remaining. The margin never got closer than 16 for the game’s remainder.

Each team came into this one looking for a better performance after their midweek contests. Purdue blew a 22-point second-half lead Tuesday night at Nebraska before surviving in overtime, while Iowa saw its six-game winning streak end at Maryland, which was 2-10 in league play before pulling off a 77-70 upset.

Neither team found the range until Harris, a sophomore averaging only 5.0 ppg, gave the Boilermakers a lift. He made the first of three 3-pointers, dunked for a three-point play and canned another 3 to complete a five-point trip that began with a Daniel Jacobsen dunk.

Ahead 15-7 at that point, Purdue upped the advantage as high as 15 later in the half before settling for a 36-25 margin at the break.

–Field Level Media