Iowa Basketball: Purdue Clearly On Another Level Than Hawkeyes

Purdue out-played the Iowa Hawkeyes the whole game to end Iowa’s five game winning streak

Iowa basketball entered conference play on a five game winning streak and with plenty of confidence. Tyler Cook returned for Iowa but came off the bench to keep a red-hot starting lineup intact. Still, Iowa getting back arguably their second best player is a boost any team could use.

It didn’t help, though, as Purdue out-played Iowa from start to finish in West Lafayette. Purdue started conference play with an 89-67 win over the Hawkeyes after easing up in the second half.

It could have been much worse for Iowa. They trailed 49-25 at halftime after Purdue started the game red-hot.

Carsen Edwards scored Purdue’s first eight points to put the Boilermakers up 8-0 just two minutes into the game.

It only got worse as the lead grew to 26 points late in the first half. Iowa held Caleb Swanigan, who has become a regular 20 point, 20 rebound player, to a modest 11 points and 10 rebounds, but it was Purdue’s team effort that overwhelmed the Hawkeyes.

Five players on Purdue scored in double-figures, as the Boilermakers finished the game shooting 50.7 percent from the field and an astounding 41.4 percent from three. Not to mention making 9-of-10 free-throws, which isn’t a lot of free-throw attempts considering Purdue nearly scored 90 points and won by 22.

As impressive as Carsen Edwards’ 19 points and Isaac Haas‘ 16 points and seven rebounds is, Vince Edwards once again stole the show off the bench. He finished with 15 points, seven rebounds, five assists, two steals and blocks, while shooting 6-of-10 from the field.

Iowa might have been able to weather one or two great performances from Purdue, but the combination of six solid performances was too much for a young team experiencing their first Big Ten road game.

After Purdue jumped out to an 8-0 lead, all the confidence Iowa had disappeared. They realized how good Purdue is and it looked like they believed that they didn’t belong. When that happens, there’s close to no chance of staying close in a game, let alone actually winning.

It led to Ahmad Wagner and Isaiah Moss combining to score zero points on 0-of-6 shooting in 31 combined minutes. Also, as hard as Cordell Pemsl tried against Haas and Swanigan, they simply looked like too big of a task for the freshman forward.

That said, Iowa couldn’t turn to Tyler Cook and expect him to be superman after missing a month with a finger injury. Cook looked rusty, but he still finished with 12 points on 6-of-10 shooting and already is making a case for moving him back into the starting lineup.

Just as many would expect in an Iowa blowout loss, Peter Jok‘s shot wasn’t there, either. He shot 4-of-15 from the field and 1-of-7 from three, as he finished with 13 points and six rebounds. Not being able to get any easy shots in the lane hurt his rhythm and forced him into tough shots on the perimeter.

However, in a game where Iowa shot 37.3 percent from the field, 23.5 percent from three and committed 14 turnovers, it wasn’t all bad.

Their free-throw woes seemingly disappeared for at least one night, as they made all 13 of their free-throws.

Jordan Bohannon had his first career zero turnover game, Nicholas Baer still had a solid game with seven points and seven rebounds and Brady Ellingson had another good game with 11 points while making all three of his three-point attempts.