For Thursday’s game at Minnesota, Purdue Boilermakers head basketball coach Matt Painter went into the lab and heavily tinkered with his starting lineup for the second time this season. In both cases, the result of his experimenting earned the Boilermakers a decisive victory.
C.J. Cox and Caleb Furst were inserted into the starting five, replacing Camden Heide and Myles Colvin, and joined mainstays Braden Smith, Trey Kaufman-Renn, and Fletcher Loyer.
To help matters, Purdue took much better care of the basketball, only turning the ball over three times the entire game, and improved their rebounding compared to recent games, and the Boilers left Minneapolis with a well-deserved win, 81-61, after outscoring the Golden Gophers by 19 (53-34) in the second half.
Loyer finished with a season-high 24 points, and Smith had his second consecutive double-double with 20 points and 10 assists.
The victory improved 20th-ranked Purdue’s record to 10-4, 2-1 in the Big Ten. Minnesota dropped to 8-6 and remained winless in three conference games.
Second Overhaul Of Starting Lineup Once Again Successful
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After losing to Marquette on November 19, Painter removed Gicarri Harris and Will Berg from starter status in favor of Colvin and Heide for their next game against Marshall. Purdue blew out the Thundering Herd, 80-45.
Following that game, Painter wanted a better presence on the boards. “I’ve yet to see a lineup that’s that good from a rebounding standpoint,” Painter confessed. “If you play bigger, you should rebound better, right? When you don’t, now if you are going to struggle to rebound, let’s be more efficient in other areas.”
That tweak worked against Marshall, but those rebounding woes resurfaced throughout December, and Painter tried once again on Thursday to get the right combination to compete down low.
It worked. Purdue outrebounded Minnesota, 34-31, which included 10 offensive rebounds.
Purdue Pulled Away From The Golden Gophers In The Second Half
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The game began with neither team asserting their dominance in a back-and-forth first half. It took Purdue a while to find its way; several times during the opening 20 minutes the Boilermakers struggled to find a decent shot early in their offensive set and had to settle for panicked and desperate attempts at the end of the 30-second shot clock.
A highlight from the first half was when Smith made his first shot of the half, a three-pointer, to become the first Big Ten player in history to reach 1,000 points, 500 assists, and 400 rebounds before his junior year ended.
The first half was physical, yet the referees let both teams play. The first foul of the game was called nearly eight minutes in, and no team shot a bonus free throw in the opening stanza.
No team held a lead of more than five, and Purdue went into the intermission with a slim 28-27 lead.
However, the second half was all Boilermakers.
After Minnesota tied the game at 35, Smith scored on a driving layup to punctuate a 7-0 Purdue run to lead 42-35 with 14:03 remaining.
Loyer remained on fire; after hitting all four of his first-half shots, he connected on the first two of the second half, the last of which counted for three to make the score 57-45 with 8:25 to go.
Smith put the game out of reach when he went on a personal 9-point run, connecting on three straight shots from distance. The third served as the dagger towards the Gophers, and it put the game out of reach at 72-55 with 3:37 left.
Purdue eventually stretched the lead to 22 before settling for its final margin of 20.
The Boilermakers put their modest two-game winning streak on the line on Sunday in the friendly confines of Mackey Arena against the Northwestern Wildcats. Game time is set for 2pm ET.
