Boilers Shuck Huskers 104-68 with Dominating Performance from CJ Cox

The freshman guard led the Boilers with 23 points as Braden Smith continues to play at a level that deserve National Player of the Year consideration

With campus coming back alive as students start classes tomorrow, the Purdue Boilermakers welcomed every back with a dominating B1G victory of the Nebraska Cornhuskers 104-68. A game that had Purdue favored by 8.5 points before tip quickly became a game that was going to be dominated by Purdue, but it was the first game in which the young players really came together and played well at the same time.

Early in the first half, Nebraska just seemed out of sorts with Purdue forcing four turnovers and Purdue hitting three of their first four from behind the arc prior to the first media timeout at the 13:48 mark. With a team that seemed to struggle on the defensive side of the ball, the Boilers have forced 13, 15, and 17 turnovers. Those are the most all season for the Boilers and indicate a more cohesive effort on that end following a team that seemed to have more breakdowns than in recent years. Today, however, the Boilers held Bryce Williams to 9 points after averaging 19.4 coming into this game.

The game quickly started as one where Smith felt ultra comfortable in sharing the ball to his shot makers as Loyer and Cox combined to go 5-5 from behind the arc in the first half. Although he didn’t have the scoring output he has enjoyed the last several games with only 8 points, Smith continued his fiery start to the B1G season with 14 assists. Over the last five games, Smith is averaging 20 points, 11.4 assists, and just 2.4 turnovers and looks the part of a player who should be considered the favorite for the Bob Cousy Award.

This game, however, goes to CJ Cox who was fantastic on both ends of the floor. It was his job to start defending Bryce Williams but the freshman guard was able to show his value as the fourth scorer on the floor with the big three. Cox had a stretch in the second half where he had a 10-0 run by himself and flashed his high ability shot making off the dribble. He would end the game with a career high 23 points on 9-11 shooting and 4 rebounds.

Cox’s game highlighted just a beautiful offensive game all around for the Boilers that saw eight players score 5 or more points with Loyer scoring 19 (5-6 3pt), TKR with 15 on 7-9 shooting, and Myles Colvin with 14 on 4-8 from behind the arc. Of those scorers, it was TKR who really shined as he chipped a career high of 7 assists thanks to the high level shot making (previous his of 4 assists on three different occasions). That places the stat lines for the big three today of 42 points, 22 assists, 9 rebounds, and just 3 turnovers.

The ease at which Purdue was playing was evident as Smith found Heide and Colvin on two separate fast break opportunities for alley-oop reverse dunks that brought the crowd to their feet. Those have been happening more frequently for a team that seems to be more conscious of getting itself into a quicker pace offensively. What fans saw in the second half was the high level shot making ability the team often flashed but never quite often strung together for entire games.

So dominating this performance was this for the Boilers that Matt Painter was able to clear his bench starting at the 8:00 minute mark with Braden Smith. That allowed the walk-on players to get extended time with Jace Rayl’s two near pull up jumpers that nearly went in being the highlight. Rayl, from nearby Kokomo, Indiana, was able to get his first points of his career at the free throw line.

Although this isn’t going to be the standard type of game for Purdue, it was a phenomenal effort following one of their worst shooting performances at Rutgers. Purdue has now won five straight games in the B1G by an average of 19.4 and have reestablished themselves amongst the favorites to win the B1G. Purdue is now 5-1 and are behind only Michigan State (5-0) and Michigan (4-0) as the only one loss team in the conference.

Purdue will head west for two games with the first being Washington on Wednesday night against new head coach Danny Sprinkle who Purdue saw last season in the NCAA Tourney. The Boilers will follow that up with a game against Oregon that may have major impacts on the B1G title race for the Boilers.