No. 6 Purdue pulls away in second half to crush Gophers

The Gophers men’s basketball team couldn’t carry over its strong finish to the first half, as No. 6 Purdue pulled away for an 85-57 victory Wednesday in West Lafayette, Ind.

The Gophers (5-5, 1-1 Big Ten), coming off a 73-64 victory over No. 22 Indiana at Williams Arena on Dec. 3, went into the halftime break behind by three points after trailing by as many as 12 in the first half.

The Boilermakers (9-1, 2-0), who fell out of the top spot in the rankings after suffering an 81-58 loss to visiting Iowa State on Saturday, scored the first 21 points of the second half to go up 56-32 with 14 minutes remaining.

After senior forward Cade Tyson scored the Gophers’ first points of the second half with 13:42 left in the game, the Boilermakers scored eight consecutive points to take a 64-34 lead with 11:26 to play. During their 29-2 run to start the second half, the Boilermakers were 13 of 16 from the field.

“You can’t go on runs like that unless you’re getting stops,” Purdue coach Matt Painter told reporters. “Defensively, we were pretty good. At the end of the first half, they got a lot of layups. At the start of the second half, we got into a groove.”

The Boilermakers led by as many as 32 points in the final eight minutes as they won their sixth straight meeting with the Gophers. Purdue has also won eight of the last nine matchups.

Senior guard Braden Smith, the Big Ten Player of the Year and a first-team All-American last season, had 15 points and 12 assists to lead the Boilermakers, who start four seniors and a sophomore. Smith leads all active Division I players with 849 career assists. He is averaging 9.3 assists per game.

He is one assist away from joining D.J. Cooper, who played at Ohio University from 2013-16, as the only Division I players to record 1,500 points, 850 assists and 550 rebounds in their careers.

Purdue senior forward Trey Kaufman-Renn, a first-team All-Big Ten selection last season who entered Wednesday averaging a Big Ten-leading 10.7 rebounds per game, had 14 points and 10 rebounds. Senior center Oscar Cluff, a transfer from South Dakota State, contributed 14 points and 11 rebounds for Purdue, which outrebounded the Gophers 46-23.

Junior forward Jaylen Crocker-Johnson led the Gophers with 17 points, and Tyson had 15. Tyson went into the game ranked first in the Big Ten and seventh in Division I in points per game (21.8). Senior guard Langston Reynolds added 11 points for the Gophers.

After trailing by as many as 12 points in the first half, the Gophers outscored the Boilermakers 17-8 over the final six minutes to pull within 35-32 at halftime.

Purdue opened the game with a 7-0 run. After a field goal by redshirt freshman forward Grayson Grove got the Gophers within 14-11 with 11:43 left in the half, the Boilermakers used an 11-2 run to open a 25-13 lead with 7:27 remaining in the half.

The Gophers next host Texas Southern on Sunday at Williams Arena. The Gophers also have nonconference home games against Campbell (Dec. 21) and Fairleigh Dickinson (Dec. 29) before resuming Big Ten play on Jan. 3 at Northwestern.

The Gophers women’s basketball team rebounded from Sunday’s double-overtime loss with an 82-44 victory over Alabama A&M on Wednesday at Williams Arena.

The Gophers (7-3), who lost to No. 7 Maryland 100-99 in their Big Ten opener, led by one point after the first quarter before outscoring the Bulldogs 30-7 in the second quarter to take control.

Sophomore guard Tori McKinney scored 13 points to lead the balanced Gophers, who had eight players score between seven and 13 points. Freshman guard Makena Christian scored 12 points, junior guard Grace Grocholski scored 11 and graduate student guard Brylee Glenn had 11 points and eight rebounds.

Redshirt junior guard Mara Braun added eight points for the Gophers to surpass 1,000 for her career.

The Gophers outscored the Bulldogs 17-9 in the third quarter to extend their lead to 64-32.

Senior guard Rakiyah Beal scored 12 points to lead the Bulldogs (3-7), who were 21-11 last season and reached the WNIT. Their 21 victories were their most since becoming a Division I team and joining the SWAC in 1998.