The atmosphere in Carver-Hawkeye on Jan. 20 was different from what it has been all season. The energy the Hawkeyes came to play with as the game tipped off was different as well.
But the result was the same. Purdue got off to a fast start, the Hawkeyes couldn’t keep up, and the Boilermakers blitzed Iowa, 87-64.
At one point early in the first half, the game was tied at 6-6 after a couple 3-pointers from both teams. But that was as close as the Hawkeyes could get; the Boilermakers rattled off an 18-0 run that Iowa never recovered from.
By the time halftime rolled around, Purdue had pushed the score to 51-20, a 45-14 deluge that grew the lead to more points than the Hawkeyes managed to score.
The Boilermakers were absolutely on fire from behind the arc, hitting 20 shots at a 61 percent clip.
The 20 3s set a Big Ten record, and a Purdue record, for most long-distance calls in a game.
Purdue entered the day as the best 3-point shooting team in the Big Ten, hitting better than 42 percent of its shots, and it showed.
Iowa’s 3-point defense has been horrific for the majority of the season, and Purdue took complete advantage.
“They’re one of the best teams in America right now, and they’re a No. 1 seed if the tournament started now, so they have shooters,” freshman Luka Garza said. “We tried to limit their inside game a little bit, and they did a great job of getting it to their shooters and knocking them down.”
Purdue’s three-man tandem of P.J. Thompson, Vincent Edwards, and Carsen Edwards were a big reason the Boilermakers lit it up from deep.
It’s no surprise that Purdue gathered its points like picking low-hanging fruit, given the explosiveness of its offense, but the rate and efficiency that it hauled in the buckets was impressive.
The Boilermakers shot 56 percent as a whole, never letting up.
Iowa, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. The Hawkeyes shot just 25 percent in the first half before eventually increasing it to 44 percent.
Garza was essentially the only player lifting the Hawkeyes. He was the only one to score in double figures, dropping 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting and adding 3 rebounds.
Tyler Cook, Iowa’s leading scorer, was essentially taken out of the game by the stout Purdue defense, as were the other main playmakers.
Cook and Jordan Bohannon were both held to 9 points, while Nicholas Baer and Isaiah Moss combined for just 9.
“I don’t know that we’re as confident as I would like us to be,” head coach Fran McCaffery said. “But I think they’re battling. They’re trying to get some things going to build confidence.”
The Hawkeyes did, however, honor Chris Street with an incredibly moving halftime tribute that included his parents, former head coach Tom Davis, Street’s former teammates, and former Chris Street Award winners.
The game wasn’t what the team wanted, but there was still a good moment for a good reason.
“It’s great to reminisce and see the guys,” Chris Street’s father, Mike, said before the game. “We’ve been fortunate enough to have been invited to stay close to the program, and that’s really where you get an inside view and see what great kids they are, and it just makes you really feel proud to be a Hawkeye.”