Recap: No. 1 Purdue 87, Iowa 73

If you saw that Iowa scored 52 points in a half against Purdue, would you have assumed Iowa managed to pull off an upset of the #1 team in the country? If you saw that Zach Edey scored just four points in a half, you probably would have felt good about Iowa's odds of winning, right? Thursday night's game between Iowa and #1 Purdue didn't necessarily follow the most predictable script, but it did end with a fairly predictable result: a comfortable Purdue victory, 87-73.

This game wasn't quite lost for Iowa in the opening five minutes, but that stretch of play did set the tone for how the night was going to play out. Iowa scored first, on a Kris Murray layup after a Purdue turnover. That 2-0 lead was Iowa's only lead of the game. The 2-2 tie when Purdue scored 30 seconds later was the only tie of the game as well.

After that initial Iowa bucket, Purdue went on a 19-2 run over the next five minutes to open up a 19-4 lead. During that span, Iowa went 1/10 from the floor, while Purdue shot 8/12, including a trio of three-pointers. That early flurry built a lead that Iowa was scratching back against for the remaining 30+ minutes of the game.

The rest of the first half was a bit more even -- Purdue outscored Iowa 19-17 until halftime -- but Iowa was never able to shrink the deficit to a notable degree. The Hawkeyes never got closer than nine points over the final 10 minutes of the first half. The first half ended with Purdue up 38-21 and shooting 44% to Iowa's 29% from the floor. The Boilermakers also had a 26-17 rebounding edge and made six three-pointers to Iowa's one.

The second half played out a bit differently, mainly because Iowa finally managed to start hitting shots. The Hawkeyes made 17 of their first 22 shots after the break, a robust 77% rate. Making shots also gave Iowa the opportunity to set up different press looks on defense, and that press did give Purdue a lot of problems. Iowa forced the Boilermakers into 12 turnovers (against just four giveaways for Iowa), and Iowa enjoyed a 12-2 advantage in points off turnovers in the second half.

Unfortunately, when the Boilermakers wasn't turning the ball over, they were rarely missing shots. Purdue shot 69% from the floor (18/26) in the second half, including 4/10 (40%) from 3-point range. That proficience on offense helped Purdue keep Iowa at arm's length for much of the second half. Iowa made more shots in the opening portion of the second half, but Purdue was able to match them; the lead remained double-digits through the first 10+ minutes of the second half (and Purdue's lead was closer to 20 points than 10 points for most of that stretch).

Iowa finally cut the lead to single digits with 7:10 to play after a Patrick McCaffery floater got Iowa to within 8 points at 70-62. McCaffery missed an and-1 chance at the free throw line, but Iowa's defensive press forced a turnover on a 10-second call. Payton Sandfort missed a 3-point try that would have cut the lead to 5 points, though Filip Rebraca did cut the lead to 6 points on a jumper with 5:39 to play.

Then Zach Edey took control of the game -- he scored on back-to-back possessions with a hook shot and a dunk, then blocked Connor McCaffery's shot back at him on the next Iowa possession. After Kris Murray missed a 3-point try on another Iowa possession, a Purdue layup pushed the back up to 12 points. The lead remained in double-digits for the rest of the game and Purdue coasted to an 87-73 victory.

Kris Murray led Iowa with 24 points on 10/16 shooting, though he was only 1/4 from 3-point range. He was held to just two rebounds and an assist, though. Filip Rebraca was the only other Iowa player in double figures, with 17 points on 8/12 shooting, with 5 rebounds, and 3 assists. Both players were dynamite in the second half; Murray had 18 points on 7/9 shooting, while Rebraca had 11 points on 5/6 shooting. Both Murray and Rebraca also managed to stay out of foul trouble (just 2 fouls for Rebraca and one for Murray) and played 36 minutes in the game. Iowa largely got the performances they needed out from their two stars.

They didn't really get enough help from anyone else, though. Connor McCaffery had a game-high 8 assists, but he had a terrible night shooting the ball (1/6 overall, 1/4 from 3-point range). Tony Perkins followed up his career-best game against Illinois with some struggles in this one, finishing with 8 points on 4/10 shooting -- and no trips to the free throw line (after going 15/16 at the stripe in the Illinois game). Ahron Ulis had 4 points on 1/6 shooting. All three struggled on defense as well, and had little success slowing down or staying in front of Purdue's red hot guards.

Patrick McCaffery had his best performances since returning to the Iowa lineup, finishing with 9 points on 4/6 shooting, along with 2 rebounds, and 2 assists. He also had 2 blocks and 5 steals (!), as his long arms and savvy positioning in Iowa's press looks gave Purdue fits. Payton Sandfort finished with 6 points, but was just 2/10 from the floor (2/6 from deep).

Zach Edey had just four points for Purdue in the first half. In fact, he didn't score his first points of the second half until 8:19 remained in the game, when Purdue had a 68-57 lead. He finished with 10 points in the half and 14 points in the game, along with 14 rebounds, 5 blocks, and 4 assists. Purdue was able to win going away against Iowa without Edey having a monster game (at least in the points column). The Boilermakers could do that because...

Purdue's guards completely outplayed Iowa's guards in this game. Perkins, Ulis, and McCaffery may have had a massive experience advantage on their Purdue counterparts in this game, but that advantage didn't turn up on the scoreboard. Freshman Braden Smith lit Iowa up for 24 points on 8/10 shooting, 4/5 from 3-point range, to go with 5 assists, and 4 rebounds. Fellow freshman Fletcher Loyer finished with 17 points on 7/16 shooting, along with 4 assists, and 2 rebounds. They were excellent and that back court advantage was the key difference in the game, especially in the first half when Purdue took control of the game.

Iowa heads to Minneapolis to take on Minnesota at 12 PM CT on Sunday, February 12. FS1 will televise the game. The not-so-Golden Gophers are 7-15 overall and 1-11 in Big Ten play this season. This is the only scheduled meeting between Iowa and Minnesota this season.