Purdue rolls past Hofstra to remain unbeaten

It wasn’t the prettiest game nor at the forefront of Purdue fans’ collective minds on this day, but the fourth-ranked Boilermakers kept on rolling Wednesday night, beating short-handed Hofstra 85-66 in Mackey Arena. Purdue’s now 9-0 headed to Nebraska this weekend.

Led by another ho-hum 23-and-18 night from Zach Edey, Purdue again won comfortably.

Braden Smith added 13 points, Caleb Furst 12 and Fletcher Loyer 10. Trey Kaufman-Renn added 13, including two of Purdue’s 10 made threes.

Hofstra played without leading scorer Aaron Estrada due to an ankle injury.

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SURPRISINGLY, ZACH EDEY DOMINATES

Purdue’s had players before who just sapped the life out of opponents. The magnitude of Isaac Haas’ dimensions would push opponents to their breaking points. Caleb Swanigan reveled in tormenting opponents with his physicality and relentlessness. Carsen Edwards’ volcanic shot-making ability sometimes left opponents shaking — or hanging — their heads.

What Zach Edey‘s doing right now is right along those lines.

“Guys his size don’t go after every rebound,” Painter said. “He goes after rebound. He gives an effort, a great effort. He’s not just one of those big dudes that sits there and scores baskets because he’s big. He has a good skill level and he has a good motor.”

Edey’s now scored 20 or more points eight straight games.

Hofstra did not get an offensive rebound, aside from one team-attributed dead-ball rebound.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been in a game where no individual has an offensive rebound,” Coach Matt Painter said.

His 18 rebounds against Hofstra marked his seventh game out of nine that he’s cracked double-figures and his third of 17 or more.

Purdue outrebounded the Pride 43-20 on Wednesday night. Its 14 offensive rebounds led to 19 second-chance points.

“I think we’re a great rebounding team and we have a lot of guys who just like rebounding the ball,” Edey said. “We have a lot of guys good at boxing their guys out even if they’re not getting the rebounds. We’re a big and physical team and that shows on the glass and in that rebounding stat.”

FRONTCOURT DEPTH SHOWS UP AGAIN

With Mason Gillis again sidelined by a back problem, Painter kept Edey on the floor for 31-and-a-half minutes, but also got nice games again from 4/5s Caleb Furst and Trey Kaufman-Renn, as they combined for 25 points and seven rebounds.

Kaufman-Renn, who often plays a prominent role in Purdue’s halfcourt offense when Edey’s on the bench, went for a season- and career-best 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting, including a pair of three. Furst, the star of Elf Night in Mackey Arena, scored a dozen points largely off the offensive glass and by crashing the baseline to feed off the attention Edey drew.

“Playing with (Edey), it makes things easy on us, because he demands so much attention,” Furst said. “… We just have to be able to play off him and we’ve been able to do that so far.”

HOFSTRA PUT UP POINTS

The Pride didn’t have 20-plus-point-per-game scorer Aaron Estrada, but nevertheless did some damage against a Boilermaker team that found itself trading baskets more than it would have liked, same as the second half against Minnesota.

Purdue came out to a dominant start defensively and led 20-2 less than six minutes into the game, seemingly headed for one of those forgettable 40-point non-conference romps.

From that point on, however, the score was a mere 65-64 in the hosts’ favor.

Redshirt freshman Amar’e Marshall scored 17 points in the span of about eight first-half minutes and finished with 24. Hofstra opened the game 1-for-7 from the floor, then shot 52 percent the rest of the way.

“(Marshall) made some tough shots,” Smith said. “We were playing good defense, but he got loose a little bit. I think overall defensively we were fine. He was making shots, but we were contesting it. High-five him and move on.”