Purdue Lights Up the Gophers
January 8, 2012

The Purdue Boilermakers opened up a 15-point halftime lead by making 10 of 12 three-point baskets and cruised to a 79-66 win over the Minnesota Gophers at Williams Arena.

With Minnesota trying to guard inside and being late on its switches outside, Purdue lit them up from the perimeter. D. J. Byrd came off the bench to make all five of his long-rangers, Ryne Smith was three-for-three, and Robbie Hummel hit two of his three three-point attempts.

“We’re a team that has to rely on our bench,” said Purdue coach Matt Painter, who got 18 points from Byrd. Painter called a 20-second time out with 4:04 left in the first half, and his team responded with a flurry of baskets. Byrd hit a pair of three-pointers before the scheduled media time out, which came with 2:24 left, and another reserve, Terone Johnson, followed with a layup, as did Robbie Hummel, to complete a 10-point run. After Rodney Williams scored for the Gophers, Johnson layed another one in to put Purdue up 47-32 at halftime.

Purdue stayed with an inside game in the second half, trying only three three-pointers, none of which was good, but 5-9 point guard Lewis Jackson torched the Gophers with repeated drives in the late, scoring 16 of his game-high 20 points in the second half. Though hampered by a bad back, Jackson was fearless in passing through and driving into traffic, getting knocked down on a few occasions but always able to get back up. “He was going by all our guys,” said Minnesota coach Tubby Smith, adding that he “never coached against a team hotter than Purdue.” He also lamented the 10 second-chance points Purdue had in the first half as the Boilermakers pulled down 7 offensive rebounds.

Freshman Joe Coleman, making his first start for the Gophers, was held scoreless in the first half but had 14 points and 6 rebounds in the second half, at one point pulling the Gophers to within 7 points. Coleman had 3 steals, 2 assists, and only 1 turnover in the game. However, Purdue responded to the Minnesota surge and built its lead back to double-digits.

Rodney Williams led the Gophers with 19 points and 14 rebounds, while blocking 2 shots and having 3 assists.

Purdue’s only weakness came at the free-throw line as the Boilermakers made only 9 of 19 attempts, with some late misses helping the Gophers to stay close. Even Byrd, who made 5 of 6 of his three-pointers in the game, was only 1 for 3 from the line.

Jackson, in addition to his points, had 4 assists and no turnovers for Purdue. Hummel had 13 points and 7 rebounds.

The loss knocked the Gophers to a 0-4 record in conference play while Purdue, which shot poorly in a loss to Penn State in its previous game, upped its Big Ten record to 3-1.

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