Boilermakers Get 'Must-Win' Road Game at Iowa, Winning 77-68
IOWA CITY, Iowa. — Joe Wieskamp thought about the way Purdue’s defense had smothered Iowa again, and came up with the perfect description of the Boilermakers.
“Strong dudes,” is what the Iowa sophomore guard called them after Tuesday’s 77-68 loss at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
The Boilermakers pushed the Hawkeyes around twice this season. The 104-68 win on Feb. 5 at Purdue was Iowa’s worst loss of the season.
This one wasn’t quite as devastating on the scoreboard, but it still irked the Hawkeyes, who need to win on Sunday at Illinois and need some help to get a double-bye in next week’s Big Ten tournament.
“They played desperate. They played hungry,” Iowa center Luka Garza said. “We didn’t.”
Purdue (16-14 overall, 9-10 Big Ten) led by 21 in the first half, and the 18th-ranked Hawkeyes (20-10, 11-8) wouldn’t get into single digits until the closing minutes.
“I don’t think the effort was there,” Garza said. “We had a couple of times (in the second half) where we fought back, but we didn’t fight back to the best of our abilities. We could have made a couple of more runs at it.”
The effort wasn’t there, much like that night in West Lafayette last month.
It’s why, at the first media timeout, the clatter of a slammed clipboard in the Iowa huddle signalled the anger of Iowa coach Fran McCaffery.
The Hawkeyes were down 11-4, and Purdue had an 8-1 rebounding edge. The night was just beginning.
We didn't execute the things that we had talked about executing,” McCaffery said. “You're going to miss shots. They're going to make shots. They give scholarships, too.
“So there were four or five things that happened that were very uncharacteristic of our team. I felt like, OK, I got to jump 'em here to get them to focus a little bit better and to lock in.”
But the Hawkeyes didn’t lock in.
The Boilermakers were locked in on Garza, Wieskamp and CJ Fredrick, the Hawkeyes’ top three scorers.
Purdue coach Matt Painter figured the best plan was the blueprint from the first meeting, when Garza had 26 points and no one else scored in double figures.
Garza would finish with 26 points in this game and add 12 rebounds for his 15th double-double of the season. Wieskamp had just 10 points, and Fredrick had eight.
“He’s a good player,” Painter said of Garza. “Think of all the attention we gave him and he gets 26 and 12.
“We just wanted to make it hard for Wieskamp. Just make it difficult — stick with him. Garza’s such a tough cover. Garza’s going to score some points. Stay with (Wieskamp) and Fredrick and make it difficult on those guys.”
“You could tell tonight they really keyed in on Luka, CJ and I,” Wieskamp said. “There weren’t a lot of opportunities for us tonight.”
There was little scoring help from the other Hawkeyes. Starters Joe Toussaint and Connor McCaffery, and reserves Ryan Kriener, Cordell Pemsl and Bakari Evelyn, combined to shoot 7-of-25 (28 percent).
“When you give that much attention (Garza, Wieskamp and Fredrick), some guys are going to be open,” Painter said. “If they make some open shots, we’re going to have to change some things.”
The Hawkeyes were outrebounded 47-33, and Purdue had 21 offensive rebounds leading to 20 second-chance points. The Boilermakers had 30 points in the paint, and scored 25 points off 15 Iowa turnovers.
“When you give up 21 offensive rebounds, we’re going to get beat,” McCaffery said. “It’s that simple.”
Iowa had its 13-game home winning streak snapped — the Hawkeyes became the last Big Ten team to lose at home this season.
The Boilermakers got a career-high 19 points from Eric Hunter Jr., and a 14-point, 14-rebound night from Evan Boudreaux.
But it was on the defensive end where the Boilermakers ruled again.
“They’re really big and they’re really deep,” McCaffery said. “They’re very athletic.”
Strong dudes, basically.
“They played better than us,” McCaffery said. “They were a little more connected. They got on the glass. They made more shots.”
“We’ve got to be better than that,” Garza said.
"I guess," Wieskamp said, "we have to be tougher."
Editor's Note: This story originally ran on our Sports Illustrated Iowa site, www.hawkeyemaven.com
Tom Brew is an award-winning journalist who's worked at some America's finest newspapers, including the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Indianapolis Star. He also owns the book publishing company, Hilltop30 Publishing Group, and he has written four books and published 16 others.