Live Game Thread & Updates for Purdue vs. No. 4 UConn Exhibition Game

The final exhibition game of the 2026-27 season has arrived. On Tuesday night, Purdue will play No. 4 UConn to close out preseason action. Then, on Monday, Nov. 2, the Boilermakers head to Las Vegas to open the regular season against No. 15 Gonzaga.

Purdue cruised to a pair of 30-point victories over Ball State and Purdue-Fort Wayne in its first two exhibition contests. Tuesday night's game against the Huskies will be the greatest challenge, though, and will provide head coach Matt Painter with an idea of where his team compares to a potential national title contender.

Tuesday's game will only be streamed on UConn-Plus for a pay-per-view cost of $9.95. Purdue Boilermakers On SI will provide live updates, news and analysis throughout the game to keep fans updated. You can refresh this page frequently for the latest updates.

Purdue Boilermakers guard Gicarri Harris (24) dunks the ball. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Purdue vs. #4 UConn live blog

End of game

C.J. Cox led Purdue with 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting, and seven rebounds. Jack Benter had eight points and Daniel Jacobsen scored seven points, four blocks and three rebounds. As a team, Purdue was just 2-of-24 from behind the three-point line and shot just 38.7% from the field.

UConn was led by Colben Landrew with 15 points, Jayden Ross had 13, Oskar Giltay had 12 and Silas Demary Jr. pitched in 12.

2nd half

FINAL — UConn 76, Purdue 53. Not the best night for the Boilermakers, but that wasn't the purpose of tonight's game. The intention was to see what the Boilers needed to work on for the next week before playing Gonzaga, and there's plenty to improve upon.

1:48 — Luke Ertel's first points of the night come on a driving layup in which he draws contact. He gets the bucket and a foul, but missed the free throw. It was a really nice drive by the freshman guard. He has struggled tonight, but that was a flash of what he can bring to this team.

3:27 — UConn 73, Purdue 45. Purdue has been scoreless for the last two minutes. Just an atrocious shooting night for the Boilermakers. They are 2-of-21 from behind the three-point line and are shooting a paltry 32% from the floor. UConn has seemingly been much better in this half and the Boilers appear to be running out of gas. This one is almost over in Hartford.

6:55 — UConn 63, Purdue 41. Daniel Jacobsen is now Purdue's second-leading scorer with 7 points tonight. He's had a nice outing for the Boilers, but the general struggles have continued for the team throughout the game.

8:48 — UConn 58, Purdue 37. C.J. Cox knocks down his first three-pointer of the game and is now up to 16 points for the night. He hasn't had a big statistical night, but Daniel Jacobsen has done some really positive things on both ends of the floor for Purdue. He's altering shots and has been more physical on his box outs.

11:06 — A frustrating night for Antione West Jr. gets worse. The redshirt freshman fouls out of the game, picking up his fifth almost immediately out of the media timeout. His night ends with just two points on 1-of-8 shooting.

11:18 — UConn 53, Purdue 31. Just not Purdue's night from a shooting perspective. Again, UConn's defense has been a major problem for the Boilermakers. Still just one made three-point shot for the game. Matt Painter is experimenting with these smaller lineups to see what Purdue can accomplish without Daniel Jacobsen or Caden Pierce on the floor. If those two were playing more minutes, it might be a slightly closer game.

12:04 — Colben Landrew has had a nice night for UConn, as well. He's up to 13 points for the Huskies. UConn has blown its lead out to 20 points at 51-31.

14:04 — UConn 47, Purdue 28. Matt Painter takes a timeout. The Huskies have made their last three field goals and are a 7-0 run.

14:35 — Purdue has gone with a lineup of Luke Ertel, Antione West Jr., Jack Benter, C.J. Cox and Enzo Shahrvin. It hasn't gone particularly well. This rotation has struggled on the defensive end and can't rebound at a high level.

15:57 — UConn 39, Purdue 27. First media timeout of the second half and UConn's Silas Demary Jr. will get a free throw out of the break. He had a nice backdoor cut and Na'jai Hines delivered a great pass for the assist. Purdue has played a little better to start this second half, but there's still a long way to go. Caden Pierce has been a bright spot on the glass, getting six rebounds tonight.

17:05 — For the first time, something goes really well for Purdue. Omer Mayer gets a bucket and a foul and will head to the free throw line. It's a 7-0 run for the Boilermakers to make the score 37-27.

18:08 — Daniel Jacobsen continues to do a nice job on the defensive end. He has three blocks for the Boilermakers and has been causing problems in the paint. Purdue is much better on the defensive end when he's been on the floor. We have a timeout with UConn leading 37-22.

20:00 — Purdue is running out its starting lineup to start the second half. It'll be Omer Mayer, C.J. Cox, Gicarri Harris, Caden Pierce and Daniel Jacobsen.

Halftime

At the risk of sounding crazy, I don't think Purdue has played as poorly as the score might indicate. Yes, the Boilers have shot poorly, but they're even in turnovers and are only getting outscored by two points in second-chance opportunities. If the Boilers make just four three-pointers, it's a completely different vibe heading into the locker room.

UConn shot 43% from the floor and got to the free-throw line 11 times, making 9. Purdue attempted only 5 free throws in the first 20 minutes. The Boilers need to find ways to get to the free-throw line.

A few things stood out from that first half. Obviously, the big one is that Purdue shot just 1-of-14 from behind the three-point line and connected on just 26.7% of its shots from the field. UConn also dominated points in the paint, outscoring Purdue 20-6. UConn won the rebounding battle 20-15, but only outscored Purdue 7-5 in second-chance points.

1st half

END — UConn 35, Purdue 20. Antione West Jr.'s shot at the buzzer is off the mark and the Boilers trail the Huskies by 15 at the break. C.J. Cox is easily having the best night of any Boiler so far, scoring 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the floor. No other Boiler has more than three points. Jayden Ross leads the way for UConn with 11.

2:23 — Purdue finally knocks down its first three of the game. It comes from Jack Benter after Raleigh Burgess missed a layup. He collected his own rebound and kicked it out to JB for the open three and he connected. The Boilers are 1-of-12 from long range, but maybe seeing one go down will help this team's confidence. Huskies lead 31-18.

3:52 — UConn 29, Purdue 13. The Boilermakers really have no answer for the Huskies defense. They're shooting just 5-of-21 from the floor and have five turnovers. UConn is also winning the rebound battle 17-10. Jayden Ross continues to have a big day, scoring 11 points.

5:29 — Purdue continues to struggle with three-point shooting, but C.J. Cox draws a foul on an attempt and will head to the charity stripe. He knocks down a pair to make the score 23-13 in favor of the Huskies.

6:34 — UConn 21, Purdue 11. The Boilermakers are still searching for their first three-pointer of the night, now 0-of-8 from deep. Omer Mayer has had a few nice drives to the basket, one resulting in a bucket and the other getting C.J. Cox an open look and a jumper. That's one element Mayer wanted to add to his game over the summer. Cox is Purdue's top scorer with six points.

9:03 — Purdue has gone to a lineup of Omer Mayer, Gicarri Harris, Luke Ertel, Enzo Shahrvin and Caden Pierce. This group has struggled to rebound the basketball in their short time on the floor. Boilers are getting outrebounded 12-6, with UConn grabbing five offensive boards.

10:31 — The Boilers just can't get anything going offensively. UConn's defense is suffocating. Purdue's current lineup includes Jack Benter, Enz Shahrvin, Antione West Jr., Luke Ertel and Gicarri Harris. UConn has really opened this thing up early, taking a 19-7 lead.

11:12 — Purdue is whistled for a shot clock violation on its first possession out of the timeout. Jack Benter, Enzo Shahrvin and Gicarri Harris checked back into the contest for Purdue.

11:42 — UConn 14, Purdue 7. Matt Painter takes a timeout after the Huskies get out in transition and Jayden Ross throws down an alley-oop from Colben Landrew. Purdue isn't playing poorly, it just can't get shots to fall. It has had several open looks. The Boilermakers had a four-minute stretch without a bucket before C.J. Cox finally knocked down a jumper. Ross is having a whale of a game early, scoring 8 points for the Huskies.

15:02 — Purdue brought in Raleigh Burgess, Luke Ertel and Antione West Jr. off the bench.

15:26 — UConn 6, Purdue 5 at the first media timeout. Jayden Ross is 2-of-2 from behind the three-point line for UConn, which is the difference in the game right now. The Boilers' ball movement has been really good, they have just missed open shots. Omer Mayer is doing a nice job controlling the offense and Caden Pierce has gotten two steals and pushed the tempo on the other end. Shots just aren't falling for the Boilers right now.

16:30 — Chilly shooting start for both teams to begin this game. The defense certainly has something to do with that. Purdue leads 5-3, but the two teams are a combined 4-of-13 from the floor in the first 3:30 of this contest.

18:27 — Purdue has been really aggressive early in this one, getting C.J. Cox an open jumper from the free throw line, then feeding Daniel Jacobsen in the post. Jacobsen then had a block on the other end. The Boilers jumped out to an early 4-0 lead over UConn.

Pregame

We're about to get this game started. It's the final exhibition game for both teams, and is by far the most challenging for Purdue.

Purdue is rolling with the same starting five tonight: C.J. Cox, Gicarri Harris, Omer Mayer, Caden Pierce and Daniel Jacobsen. It will be interesting to see if Matt Painter rolls out any unique lineups that we haven't seen through the first two exhibitions.

Braylon Mullins returns for UConn, his first appearance in the exhibition season. UConn's starters for tonight will be Mullins, Silas Demary Jr., Nik Khamenia, Jayden Ross and Na'jai Hines.

Tipoff between Purdue and UConn is set for 7 p.m. ET. The game will air on UConn-Plus. This is the final exhibition game of the 2026-27 season for both programs.

Exhibition results

Both Purdue and UConn have played two exhibition games before Tuesday night's matchup. The Huskies played two power conference opponents, taking on Syracuse and Michigan State. This will be the third major team Dan Hurley's squad has played in the preseason.

The Boilermakers played a pair of mid-major programs in their first two exhibition contests, hosting Ball State and traveling to play Purdue-Fort Wayne. Tuesday's game against UConn will be the only power conference foe Purdue will play in preseason action.

Both teams have won both of their preseason games.

UConn Huskies

Oct. 13 vs. Syracuse — W, 72-52
Oct. 20 vs. Michigan State — W, 78-70

Purdue Boilermakers

Oct. 18 vs. Ball State — W, 87-55
Oct. 22 vs. Purdue-Fort Wayne — W, 92-62

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