No. 4 Purdue Cruises By Iowa

Hawkeyes Fall in West Lafayette, 87-68, Monday Night

Iowa Hawkeyes center Even Brauns (0) attempts to block a shot by Purdue Boilermakers guard Ethan Morton (25) on Dec 4, 2023 in West Lafayette, Ind during the second half at Mackey Arena. (Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports)

Iowa men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery said last week that defending Purdue sometimes turns into a “pick your poison” choice.

There was no good choice for the Hawkeyes in their 87-68 loss to the fourth-ranked Boilermakers in West Lafayette, Ind.

Purdue (8-1 overall, 1-1 Big Ten) made eight 3-pointers — six in the first half while building a 45-24 halftime edge — while reigning national player of the year Zach Edey had 25 points and 12 rebounds inside.

McCaffery said it is “difficult” to try to defend Edey, who was 9-of-10 from the field while drawing nine fouls.

“But I think you have to give credit to the rest of their guys that are out there for them,” McCaffery said. “They really executed out there tonight in terms of screening and cutting and ball movement, which makes it really hard.

“If you’re trying to focus on (Edey), they’re not a one-man show, at all. They have shooters, they have drivers, they have size. They stretch your defense in ways that make it very difficult.”

Five Boilermakers scored in double figures. Besides Edey, Lance Jones had 17 points, Fletcher Loyer and Mason Gillis had 12, and Trey Kaufman-Renn had 10.

“I thought we could do better than we did,” McCaffery said. “We worked hard this week. But I think you have to give credit to that team collectively.”

Other takeaways from the loss:

AN EAST-WEST GAME: Purdue’s defense never let the Hawkeyes get into any sort of offensive flow.

The Hawkeyes shot 38.5 percent from the field, 31.3 percent in the first half. Iowa had just 10 fast-break points for the game, and was just 6-of-18 in 3-pointers.

“Our offense got really east and west, and that’s a credit to the defense, to the pressure,” McCaffery said. “We were trying to move it and get some opportunities, but we got way too east and west and not enough north and south.”

Iowa got 16 points from Ben Krikke and 12 from Tony Perkins.

TAKING AWAY SANDFORT: Purdue blanketed Payton Sandfort, Iowa’s leader in 3-pointers this season, throughout the first half.

Sandfort missed his only three shots of the first half — he was 0-of-2 in 3-pointers — and he finished the game shooting 3-of-10 from the field, 3-of-7 in threes on his way to a 9-point game.

FIRST BIG TEN EXPERIENCE: Iowa’s four freshmen got their first taste of Big Ten road play, with mixed results.

Owen Freeman had six points and four rebounds. Brock Harding had seven points. Pryce Sandfort had five points, and Ladji Dembele went scoreless.

It was a good lesson, McCaffery said.

“I’ve got to keep giving them minutes,” he said “They got quality minutes. They learned. And there’s just no substitute for that unless you play in this environment against a team of that caliber, and you figure out what you can do, or what doesn’t work.”

WHAT’S NEXT: Iowa (5-3, 0-1) plays at Iowa State on Thursday before coming home to play Michigan on Sunday.

“We have to be moving forward,” McCaffery said. “The teams we play in this league, and obviously the next two games, have athletes like this team. We have to do a better job of executing our stuff, and rebounding the ball.”