IOWA CITY -- Iowa fell to Purdue for the second time this season in an 84-70 home loss on Saturday afternoon.

Here are three takeaways from the loss.

Defending reigning National Player of the Year Zach Edey is a tough task for any team, let alone one with two mid-major transfers and two true freshmen as the players who see the most time at center.

"I think we did the best we could," senior guard Tony Perkins said. "We didn't get any over-the-backs, sometimes we played excellent defense when we were supposed to. It's hard, you know? I mean, they shoot the ball and he goes and gets it. He's 285, maybe 300 [pounds]. He's hard to move. He's a big fella to keep out of the paint."

The Hawkeyes came in prepared best they could, too.

"I though our scout team did a good job with that," Fran McCaffery said postgame, "We put Riley Mulvey in that spot and he does a terrific job of emulating what their other bigs do. It's just different with Edey. He gets deep position and he's really hard to defend."

The 7'4" center finished with 30 points and 18 rebounds, and also went 10-of-15 from the free throw line. In total, the Hawkeyes shot 16 free throws as a team.

Edey was quite apparently a problem for the officials, too.

The big man received the benefit of a host of calls that either could -- or should -- have gone uncalled throughout the day. Twice he was blocked near the rim and it appeared clean, but the play was called a foul by an official that was near half court -- not the one closest to the action. One of the fouls was on Perkins, with another on Even Brauns.

Edey's teammates made it even more difficult for the Iowa defense, making nine three-pointers on the day.

"It's really hard [to defend them]," McCaffery said postgame. "They run really good stuff. They have a multitude of three-point shooters. So, it's not 'Okay, chase these guys, leave him.' They're all out there hitting threes."

Part of the Edey problem is that he finished with 18 rebounds. It wasn't just Edey, either. As a whole, Iowa was out-rebounded 50-24. A glass kicking, if you will.

"Obviously, it was a huge focal point going into the game," Payton Sandfort said. "We knew we had to do it to win. We didn't execute to the best of our ability. A lot of times we were fighting and just didn't get bounces. Sometimes that's the way it goes, but we needed to be more locked in and more physical. We'll continue to improve."

"I think it was a combination of things. They're really good on the glass -- that's what they pride themselves on and recruit for. It takes a total team effort to get the rebound against Purdue. We didn't execute every time."

While Sandfort pointed to a lack of execution and praised the Boilermakers' efforts, McCaffery had an alternative explanation for part of the rebounding discrepancy.

"I would like to see my guy, who was Freshman of the Week six times, get a little more respect."

Owen Freeman finished the game with just six points on 3-of-6 shooting from the field and was called for four fouls in 20 minutes.

The drastic difference in rebounding numbers is one thing -- it was an explanation for Purdue's game-long, double-digit lead that reached 19 points at one point. Even with that as a massive factor in the game, the Hawkeyes appeared to be within reach with 4:22 to go, trailing by just eight points, 78-70.

Over the ensuing four-plus minutes, the Hawkeyes didn't score a single point.

"I thought both teams looked pretty fatigued there," Purdue head coach Matt Painter said. "I thought we had some good looks. Sandfort got away from us a couple times and we were very fortunate that he just missed some of those threes. He got that one flair wide open. Then he got a couple more right after that. I mean you've seen how he single-handedly in those situations can get it rolling."

"I thought every body played really hard, and just got really fatigued. Some times late in games that just happens. You see some shots get short and not go in."

McCaffery agreed with Painter, saying his team got the looks they wanted for the most part.

"I thought he had pretty decent shots," he said. "The guys were really moving the ball, I thought. I don't think we settled, we had the right guys shooting the ball. That's kind of how we play."

"It's probably true our guys were fatigued. That's on me. I probably should've played my bench a little bit more. It was kind of a constant struggle to cut into their lead. We finally started doing it, and my thought was to leave the same group in and let them finish it."

Iowa's next matchup will be with Maryland (11-7, 3-4 Big Ten) at 6 PM CT on Wednesday in Iowa City. The game will be broadcast on Big Ten Network.