Hawkeyes manhandled by Boilermakers

By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — From the opening tip to the final whistle, No. 11 Purdue exerted itself as a stronger team both physically and mentally, and it proved to be more than enough as the Boilermakers coasted to a 75-52 win over the Iowa Hawkeyes on Sunday at Mackey Arena.

The loss drops Iowa back under .500 at 7-8 overall, and the Hawkeyes now find themselves at 0-3 in Big Ten play with 15 games remaining before the conference’s annual tournament in March.

In all three of Iowa’s Big Ten losses — albeit all three to ranked teams — there were runs made by their opponents that proved fatal. Unlike its home defeats to Illinois and Ohio State, the Hawkeyes went on the road and spotted Purdue with 11 points before senior center Jarryd Cole nailed the first Iowa bucket of the game to end a scoreless drought that lasted the game’s first 5:23.

“We wanted to come out and get a good jump on them, and we didn’t do that. We couldn’t do that,” Cole said. “They got pretty much whatever they wanted right there in the first part of the first half.”

Not only did Sunday’s battle with the Boilermakers start ugly for the Hawkeyes, but the sloppiness and poor execution continued on for the majority of the 40 minutes played.

In the first half, Iowa was only able to muster nine field goals on 26 attempts. Even more frustrating for the Hawkeyes was that only one of those 26 shots taken in the first half came from beyond the arc.

“I think it had a lot to do with their defense,” Gatens said about only getting one 3-point field goal off during the game’s first 20 minutes. “They weren’t letting me get much space at all.

“We need to learn, and be able to screen and cut and do better things to get open looks, not only for myself, but for everybody else.”

One of the few bright spots for Iowa came in the form of junior forward Devon Archie. Although he only scored two points, which came on a dunk in transition following a Boilermaker turnover, he gave the Hawkeyes 20 minutes of action and came away with eight rebounds and three blocks to go with the points.

“I’ve just been waiting for my opportunity to go out and get a chance,” Archie said. “Getting comfortable on the court is probably my biggest thing. When I’m more comfortable, I’m at my best.”

Also productive off the bench was junior forward Andrew Brommer, who had six points and three rebounds. Brommer and Archie were needed as Cole finished with six points and zero boards, while six of freshman Melsahn Basabe’s eight points came from the free-throw line.

Iowa returns to Carver-Hawkeye Arena to host Northwestern on Jan. 12 before playing four of the following five games in the month of January away from Iowa City. Tip-off for the Hawkeyes’ contest against the Wildcats is set for 7:30 p.m., and the game will be aired nationally on the Big Ten Network.

One area head coach Fran McCaffery hopes his team plays better is with aggressiveness at both ends of the court, something it struggled with against Purdue and will need to make happen to come away with a win over the Wildcats later this week.

“I think we have a team that can be aggressive,” McCaffery said. “We have some guys that can go off the dribble and attack, we have some shot makers. We just have to be able to break the defense down.”