Hawkeye men fall again, 90-81 to No. 7 Purdue, drop to 4-7 in the Big Ten

IOWA CITY — Purdue made nine second-half 3-pointers and broke away to a 90-81 men’s basketball win over Iowa Tuesday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

The Hawkeyes dropped to 13-9 overall, 4-7 in the Big Ten. It was their fifth loss in the last six games. Purdue, which won its fifth straight road game, is 10-2, 18-5.

Spurred by 11 points from junior guard Braden Smith, who had 31 in the game, Purdue went on a 22-10 run in the first 4:57 of the second half to open a 58-46 lead. The Boilermakers made five 3-pointers in the span of 2:46.

“They came out ready to play the second half,” Iowa forward Payton Sandfort said. “That stretch of the game is something we’ve got to figure out.”

Smith made 11 of 15 shots and was 5 of 7 from deep. He played 40 minutes, and had 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals.

“He’s really a quintessential point (guard) more than anything,” Purdue Coach Matt Painter said. “He’s not that lead guard who scores even though tonight he was that lead guard we needed. He leads more off of just competing, going at people.

“He enjoys the competition. He enjoys fighting. He loves to win.

“We did a really good job making him uncomfortable there for the first 18 minutes,” Sandfort said, “and then kind of get in his rhythm. When he's comfortable, that's when he's just dangerous.

“They came out ready to play the second half. That stretch of the game is something we’ve got to figure out.”

The Hawkeyes closed to within 80-77 with 2:42 left, but Purdue scored the next seven points and closed it out after that.

Forward Trey Kaufman-Renn added 25 points for the Boilermakers. Josh Dix had 27 points, Sandfort 23 for Iowa.

The Hawkeyes shot 51.7 percent from the field, but Purdue was at 52.6 percent.

The first half ended in a tie at 36. Iowa broke to a 10-3 lead. Purdue had a 10-0 run to claim its largest advantage of the half, 21-15. Iowa went back up by 33-27 with 2:50 left in the half.

Smith swished a long 3-pointer at the horn to knot the game at the break. Iowa would have had the halftime lead had it shot any better than the 2-of-7 it did at the foul line.

The Hawkeyes, who rank last in the Big Ten in rebound margin, were outboarded again, 33-26.

Sophomore center Riley Mulvey and sophomore forward Seydou Traore got their first starts as Hawkeyes. They combined for two points in 25 minutes. Soph point guard Brock Harding didn’t start, for the first time this season. He had 11 points in 23 minutes.

Owen Freeman, the Iowa center who leads the team in scoring with 16.7 points per game, underwent finger surgery Monday. He will be out the rest of the season.

Iowa’s next game is at home Saturday at noon against No. 21 Wisconsin.

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