Thanks to turnovers, Purdue routed on the road to open Big Ten play
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — These December Big Ten road openers have not been kind to Purdue in recent years for some reason.
Actually a pretty clear reason: Turnovers.
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Thursday night at Penn State, eighth-ranked Purdue wilted against the home team’s defensive pressure, committing 24 turnovers that led to 32 Nittany Lion points, falling 81-70, the final score warping the reality of the game.
“This could have a grind-it-out game for us if we could take care of the basketball,” Coach Matt Painter said.
Purdue didn’t, but Painter was left lamenting other failings, as well.
“We’ve got a lot of good dudes, a lot of good dudes who care about Purdue, who work hard,” Painter said, “but if we were at the front line of a war right now, we’d all be dead.
“Our fight wasn’t even close to Penn State’s fight. It wasn’t even remotely close.”
Trey Kaufman-Renn and Fletcher Loyer each scored 15 points, but committed seven and five turnovers, respectively, though two of the former’s turnovers put Matt Painter on the officials hard enough to merit his first technical foul since 2015. Those two foul shots gave Penn State its first 20-point lead, en route to as many as 27.
“I don’t know how to explain this without sounding hateful,” Trey Kaufman-Renn said afterward, after a moment or two of thought, “but if that was at home, I’d have shot 30 free throws. The difference in how the game was called, for whatever reason, I’m just going to have to get used to that.”
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Fouls were part of the story, but only part. More important was Purdue’s clear lack of poise in the face of Penn State’s pressure and physicality.
Loyer said Purdue knew what it needed to do to function better offensively, but wasn’t “ready to play.”
“It’s about having some stones,” Loyer said. “It’s not making shots or playing better than them as much as it’s just being ready to do your job. It’s playing harder than them, getting on the floor and getting every rebound.
“It’s a joke for us to not be able to do that. It’s embarrassing. I have to do a better job as a leader and me, Braden and Trey have to do a better job just starting it for us.”
