Boilers Lost 94-84 to Badgers to Continue Fall in B1G Standings

Boilers got 30 points from Kaufman-Renn but defense couldn’t get stops in second half

The Purdue Boilermakers dropped another disappointing game as they battle for a third consecutive B1G title, this time a home matchup to the Wisconsin Badgers 94-84. Just a few short days after dropping a game on the road to the Michigan Wolverines to lose possession of first place in the B1G, the Boilers dropped into a what amounts to fourth place as the Badgers will hold the tie breaker over the Boilers moving forward. It was a difficult week for Purdue but even more so for a once vastly improved Purdue defense.

Enter this week, the Boilers had been turning over opponents at a rate that led the B1G and was one of the best in the nation since the calendar flipped to 2025. The last two games, though, have seen that advantage slip away. Wisconsin turned the ball over only three times and Purdue got only three points off those turnovers. As a comparison, the Boilers have had several games of 18+ points off turnovers this season.

Early on, the Boilers were being efficient with their offense while the defense looked strong in keeping the Badgers out of the lane. It was apparent early on that the officiating would be uneven as they allowed a lot of contact from the Badgers on both ends and CMP was much more demonstrative with the officials than he has been over the last several years. It looked like Purdue would be able to use their home court advantage following a beautiful full court pass from Smith to Loyer for a layup that put them up 15-14 with 12:48 left in the first half.

Following that, the Boilers and Badgers would trade scoring until Kamari McGee was whistled for a flagrant 2 foul after making contact to the groin of TKR. Purdue held a 29-22 lead following TKR hitting both free throws and inevitably pushed the lead to 35-26 with just 4:09 left in the first half. It was at that point a worrying trend that has shown itself over the last several games popped up again: losing a lead and momentum to close the first half.

The Boilers had chances to push their lead above double digits but instead allowed a 10-2 run over the final four minutes of the first half. That meant that, once again, the Boilers lost the momentum they had built to waste away and enter the halftime 37-36. It was especially frustrating because the Boilers had gotten Crowl, Winter, and Blackwell into foul trouble at different points with both picking up two fouls in the first half.

To start the second half, it was suddenly apparent that the Badgers had found their footing offensively. The Badgers started 9-11 from the field and didn’t miss back to back shot attempts until 12:32 in the second half. The Boilers did a good job of matching that offensive outburst by making their first six shot attempts, led by TKR’s 4-4 in that stretch, but quickly found themselves falling behind hitting just one of their next seven shot attempts. In that span, the Boilers went from up 50-47 to down 62-53 after allowing an 15-3 run.

Following half where Purdue largely did a good job against John Tonje, he was able to explode for 22 points. He led an offensive clinic where the Badgers scored 1.871 points per possession and shot 72% from the field overall to a 58 point effort in the second half. That is clearly the worst half of Purdue defense in a very long time and may be the highest single half Purdue has given up under a Matt Painter coached team.

TKR was able to have another fantastic game as the junior big man went for 30 points on 12-16 shooting with 4 rebounds and 5 assists and looked the part of an All American and a player that should be added to the final list of the Kareem or Malone awards in a few weeks. His ability to be patient and score from a multitude of ways was again top notch.

Purdue was able to fight to get the lead back down to six multiple times but were never able to string together the stops on defense and the scoring on offense necessary to make it a closer game. After starting the game with back to back misses from the free throw line, the team that is the best free throw shooting team in the country made 18 of their final 22.

Fletcher Loyer was able to maintain his solid shooting on the season with 15 points but struggled on the defensive end to the point that Coach Painter felt it necessary to start pulling him on switches for offense and defense. In support of Loyer and TKR, Cox was able to grab 13 points and shot 3-6 from behind the arc but Smith had a struggle today with just 6 points on 2-10 from the field.

It was a frustrating game when Purdue played well enough to win, especially at Mackey Arena, as the Boilers shot 29-56 (51.8%) from the field while hitting 10-22 (45.5%) from behind the arc and shot 16-21 (76.2%) from the free throw line while only turning the ball over 4 times and out rebounded the Badgers 25-23. It was simply a game where the Badgers played better than Purdue but the defensive effort and intensity was extremely lacking today.