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Purdue came into this game riding a high after taking down #8 Alabama on the road. They watched earlier today as #1 usurping Houston struggled to take down future Purdue opponent Auburn. Maybe that was a nice reminder to take nothing for granted as Purdue will next head to the Bahamas. This had all the makings of a classic trap game for Purdue. In the first half though Purdue certainly didn’t play like a team looking past the Zips.
I joked in the game thread that Akron, who averages 99 points per game, who shoots 32.4% from three coming into this one would likely shoot 40% or more against the Boilermakers. Well, in the first half that was what kept Akron in the game. They were 7-17 from deep for, you guessed it, 41%. I guess my prediction was more prescient than I thought. I should do this for a living or something. Of course, there are two teams on the court and Purdue wasn’t about to let the Zips have all the fun out there.
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Purdue has just so many weapons that it’s hard for opponents to know where to focus their defense. That was certainly the case in the first half when Purdue had eight different players score and five different players hit a three pointer. Purdue was led by Fletcher Loyer with 16 in just 13 minutes of play. He wasn’t the only one out there making a difference though as Purdue was able to sit Braden Smith for three minutes thanks to the continued emergence of Omer Mayer. Mayer had 9 points, 2 rebounds, a 1 assist in the first half. Combine that with the 8 points, 1 rebound, and 6 assists that Braden Smith had and you’re getting quite a bit of production from the point guard position. Plus, Braden Smith does things like this, it was so disrespectful I can’t even put into words the noises Mackey made when this happened.
I’ve gone this far and haven’t even mentioned Trey Kaufman-Renn being an absolute beast on the boards in the first half. He had 9 first half rebounds, and a couple hard falls as he fought for them. Then look at…
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Publish date : 2025-11-17 02:39:00
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