Boilers Defeat Gophers 81-61 Behind Barrage from Smith and Loyer

Boilers score 53 points in second half to blitz Gophers to get their second B1G victory.

The Purdue Boilermakers were able to grab an important road victory, 81-61, against the Minnesota Gophers. The Boilers moved to 2-1 in the B1G and 10-4 overall following a solid second half that saw the Boilers stretch a one point half time lead with 53 points in the half. It wasn’t with frustrating moments for the Boilers in the first half.

The Gophers really frustrated the Boilers with their aggressive defense and Purdue struggled to just a 28-27 lead. The Boilers shot just 12-27 and struggled with an offense that looked sluggish to get much of anything going. Although, a big positive was the Boilers had only three first half turnovers and got great minutes out of Caleb Furst.

It should be noted that CJ Cox made his first start of his career alongside Furst making his first start of the season as Purdue went to another change in the starting lineup following Cam Heide and Myles Colvin struggling through the last several games. Cox failed to score but had 5 rebounds in 21 minutes of game time and ended up a solid +12. Furst, though, played as well as he has the entire season.

Furst has seen his minutes diminish over the last two seasons with the emergence of TKR and Cam Heide but the lone senior on Purdue’s roster looked the part of what Purdue needs from him this season. In 30 minutes of play, Furst scored 11 points, grabbed 6 rebounds, had 1 assists, and blocked 1 shot. Those30 minutes are the second most of his career behind only a 2021 neutral site matchup against North Caroline in 2021.

It was the combination of Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer who really shined in the second half for the Boilers.

TKR struggled again with foul issues that saw him go to the bench early in the second half just as he and Smith were starting to figure out the Minnesota defense together. That led to Smith and Loyer taking over for the Boilers as they pair combined to shoot 10-16 from the field and hit 8 three pointers in the second half and score a total of 35 points. The shooting display was highlighted late in the second half as the shot clock was dwindling and Loyer saved an arrant pass and was forced to heave a deep three along the sideline over his head that banked in.

It was the overall effort in the second half of the team that saw them commit zero turnovers and just three for the entirety of the game. That’s largely been the biggest issue for the Boilers this season outside of finding a legitimate fourth scorer outside of the big three in TKR, Smith, and Loyer. It doesn’t always have to be the same player but if it is Caleb Furst moving forward, that’s a big shot in the arm for Purdue moving forward as he provides the best interior post defense and pushed TKR out to his more natural power forward position.

Smith became the first player in B1G history to hit 1,000 points, 500 assists, and 400 rebounds before the end of his junior season and is just the second ever in program history to hit those numbers, joining Bruce Parkinson. Smith ended the game with another near triple-double with 20 points, 10 assists, and 6 rebounds. Most notable, though, he had zero turnovers. That follows up a career game against Toledo where he scored 34 points.

The Boilers will return to Mackey Arena on January 5th against the Northwestern Wildcats and will look to improve to 3-1 in their quest to ‘Three Pete’ the B1G Championship.