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Turnovers, cold shooting night, defensive woes hurt Michigan in 91-64 blowout loss at Purdue

clayton-sayfieby:Clayton Sayfie•01/24/25•

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Tre Donaldson C.J. Cox
Michigan Wolverines basketball struggled with turnovers, grabbing loose balls and rebounding in a loss at Purdue. (Photo by Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images)

No. 21 Michigan Wolverines basketball dropped to 14-5 overall and 6-2 in Big Ten play with a 91-64 loss to No. 11 Purdue Friday night at Mackey Arena.

Here’s a recap of how the game unfolded.

First half

Junior guard Tre Donaldson turned the ball over on two-straight possessions to open, and Purdue took advantage by going up 4-0. That was just the beginning of a disastrous start for the Maize and Blue, who made only 1 of their first 4 field goal attempts and turned the ball over 5 times in the first 3:30 of game time. Purdue took a 13-2 lead with a C.J. Cox three-pointer, and Michigan head coach Dusty May called timeout.

Michigan trailed 19-9 at the 14:17 media timeout, at which point Purdue was shooting 9-of-11 from the field, with 3 made layups. Cox was leading the way with 7 points, while point guard Braden Smith and forward Trey Kaufman-Renn each had 6 points.

Cox and guard Fletcher Loyer nailed back-to-back threes after the media timeout to push the Boilermakers’ advantage to 25-9. May burned his second timeout at the 11:17 mark, once it was a 12-0 Purdue run following a lob from Smith to Camden Heide for the slam. The Boilermakers had a 20-point edge (29-9).

The bleeding didn’t stop there. Purdue’s lead ballooned to 36-13 at the under-8 media timeout, with the Boilermakers shooting 15-of-23 from the field. Michigan had 9 turnovers that resulted in 14 Purdue points. Smith really got going with 10 points, making 5 of his 6 two-point shots and dishing out 4 assists at that point.

Purdue pushed its lead to 29 points (44-15), the largest of the game to that point, before Michigan battled with 6-straight points, highlighted by a nifty finish at the rim by freshman guard L.J. Cason, who received some playing time after not seeing any action the previous two games. Purdue head coach Matt Painter burned his first timeout after a made layup by Smith to put their team up 46-21 with 2:45 remaining in the half.

Michigan got a couple layups toward the end of the half, one by graduate center Vladislav Goldin and the other from redshirt junior forward Will Tschetter, but it was all Boilermakers. They shot 58 percent from the field with 6 made threes, compared to Michigan’s 36 percent and 10 turnovers. Painter’s club led 51-26 at halftime, led by 14 points from Smith.

“They were the more aggressive team on both ends of the floor,” Michigan assistant coach Mike Boynton Jr. said in his halftime interview on U-M radio. “Usually the game tilts in the favor of the team that’s more aggressive. We gotta play tougher.”

Second half

Michigan started out with a nice possession that ended in a layup from junior guard Roddy Gayle Jr. after he corralled an offensive rebound. Gayle showed some life early in the frame, scoring the team’s first 6 points.

Michigan did go on a 6-0 run but Purdue answered with five-straight of their own. The Boilermakers led 60-34 at the under-16 media timeout.

Michigan cut the deficit to 24 points a few times, but Purdue continually answered. Smith continued to go off and had 22 points on 10 made field goals — all from inside the three-point arc — at the under-12 media timeout. Purdue held a 70-45 lead and made 7 of its last 9 field goals at that juncture.

Gayle had 2 bad pass turnovers but was active attempting to get to the rim, making 2 free throws with over nine minutes to go and then nailing a three to make it 75-50 at the 7:56 mark. That was just Michigan’s third three-pointer of the game.

Purdue got out to its largest lead of the game — 87-57 with just under four minutes to play — before Donaldson, who had a rough night, drained a three from the left wing.

It became garbage time from there, with Purdue winning 91-64.

Smith led Purdue with 24 points, and Loyer chipped in 18. Michigan was paced by Goldin’s 14 points.

The Boilermakers shot 55 percent to Michigan’s 37, and the Wolverines gave th. ball away 22 times.

Michigan vs. Purdue box score

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