Quick start leads to victory

By Anne McLaren
Assistant Sports Editor

Purdue got the quick start it was looking for against Northwestern, but had to use a second half run to close out the Wildcats, 78-59, in Mackey Arena on Saturday.

After Northwestern (7-11, 0-6 Big Ten) cut the score to 39-36 on a 3-pointer by Collier Drayton with 14:08 remaining, Purdue (12-5, 4-2) went on a 15-2 run highlighted by consecutive 3-pointers by Rodney Smith, Maynard Lewis and Austin Parkinson.

"After they cut it to three, I think we panicked for a little bit," said Parkinson, who distributed a career-high 7 assists. "Once we turned it up defensively — guys started playing with some energy, trying to get the crowd into it — I think we did better in the second half."

Smith led all scorers with 27 points, tying his career high set against UCLA earlier this season. Smith shot 10 of 12 from the field but just 5 of 10 from the free throw line. In Big Ten play, Smith is shooting just 52 percent from the line.

"I don’t know why I’m missing my free throws," said Smith. "I keep staying after practice all the time (to practice). I don’t know what’s the matter with me. This is the first time I’ve had a funk shooting free throws."

Smith scored 20 points in the second half on 8-of-8 shooting. Purdue coach Gene Keady was pleased with Smith’s shot selection.

"After the Wisconsin game, he started going too much one-on-one. When the ball got to him, the offense stopped. In the Iowa game, they did a good job D-ing him up and Minnesota the same thing. We tried to make sure he stayed away from taking the ball and holding it and not doing that type of offensive kill. He was killing our offense.

"(Against Northwestern) he started taking the ball; he started cutting, screening, getting involved, posting up where he’s supposed to and then he started scoring again. So it was a matter of him not taking the ball and stopping the offense."

John Allison added 17 points and three blocked shots for Purdue. Aaron Jennings led Northwestern with 13 points off the bench before fouling out with 9:15 remaining.

In the first half, Purdue led 13-0 and 21-6 before Northwestern went on an 11-4 run to pull within eight. After shooting 50 percent in the first 10 minutes, the Boilers hit just 1 of 15 attempts in building a 30-22 halftime advantage.

"Middle of the first half and the start of the second half, we didn’t have any energy," said Purdue coach Gene Keady. "We weren’t getting much done."

Allison said, "Towards the last 10 minutes, I think we played lethargic. We kind of played out of our element. It was a problem. We talked about that in the locker room. We came out in the second half and tried to step it up but still started pretty slow."

Purdue more than doubled its shooting percentage in the second half, hitting 16 of 25 attempts for 64 percent after hitting on just 29 percent in the first half.

"I don’t think we were taking bad shots, we just weren’t finishing, especially on lay-ups," said Parkinson. "The second half we were a little more patient and that translated into buckets."

Northwestern also improved its shooting percentage in the second half but made only 20 of 60 for the game (33 percent).

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Sports editor:
Paul Trembacki

Assistant sports editor:
Anne McLaren

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