Rapid Reaction: Purdue Falls at Nebraska

Shooting woes derailed the Boilermakers in their first Big Ten road game, falling to the Cornhuskers 70-56 on Sunday.

LINCOLN, Neb. — Purdue joined in on the Big Ten's crazy start to the season Sunday when it lost on the road to Nebraska, 70-56. That's 12 games in a row where the Big Ten home team has won here in December.

A perfect 12-0 on the season. So, yes, it's clearly very hard to win on the road in the Big Ten.

The Boilermakers, now 6-4 overall and 1-1 in the league, had no answer for Nebraska's Cam Mack, who had 11 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists to record the first triple-double in Nebraska basketball history. 

"Give Nebraska credit. They played hard. They played with discipline and made some shots at the end. And Mack, he was the best player on the floor tonight,' Purdue coach Matt Painter said. "We had some empty possessions. Our shot selection wasn't that bad.  The ball was at the rim so much. I told them, 'We've really played well but we've missed three straight layups.

"We had 10 offensive rebounds in the first half, but we couldn't make the layups. Their guys just played better than our guys tonight.''

Purdue struggled to shoot all night long. Nebraska, much as it did Friday night against Indiana, packed the lane with a 2-3 zone defense and forced the Boilermakers to shoot over it. They couldn't do it. Purdue shot just 30.4 percent from the field (24-for-79), and were just 17.1 percent from the 3-point line (6-for-35). 

Even worse, the Boilermakers couldn't get to the free throw line, getting only five free throw attempts and making only two.

Nebraska was playing on short rest after losing in overtime at Indiana on Friday night. But it didn't show.

"It was very tough. We gave it all out at Indiana, but we had to come to today and win,'' Mack said. "I'm just blessed (to get the triple-double) I had no idea until my teammates started saying 'one more rebound' or 'one more assist.' ''

Nebraska's Dachon Burke was the Cornhuskers' leading scorer with 16 points. Thorir Thorbjarnarson added 13. Nebraska is now 5-6 overall and 1-1 in the league. 

Purdue gave up 70 points after holding Virginia and Northwestern under 45 points in its two previous games. 

Trevion Williams had a big game for the Boilermakers on the offensive end, scoring 18 points on 9 of 13 shooting. He also had 16 rebounds. Isaiah Thompson added 10 off the bench for Purdue, the only other player in double figures. 

Purdue's Matt Haarms had to leave the game with an injury. Prior to that, he was 1-for-8 shooting and scored only 3 points. Painter said after the game that Haarms was in the concussion protocol. "I didn't see what happened, but he didn't look quite right afterward,'' Painter said

Jahaad Proctor, who had scored in double figures for 25 games in a row, saw his streak end. He was just 2-for-11 shooting and scored only 5 points. The two other starters, Sasha Stefanovic (2-for-10) and Eric Hunter Jr. (3-for-10) also struggled shooting.