The pink high tops weren’t red slippers, but the Nikes contained magic on Tuesday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Purdue guard Braden Smith, the owner of the shoes in question, fashioned the hardwood into his own yellow-brick road, gliding past defenders on his way to the basket and launching rainbows that found nothing but net on his way to 31 points. His efforts paved the pathway for a 90-81 victory over Iowa, knocking the Hawkeyes to 13-9 overall and 4-7 in the Big Ten.
Playing without leading scorer and rebounder Owen Freeman – who had finger surgery on Monday and will miss the rest of season – Iowa conjured some enchantment of its own, cutting a 12-point second-half deficit down to three with 2:42 remaining.
Yet the chance of upsetting the seventh-ranked team in the country fizzled after two missed three-pointers on the same possession. Hawkeyes Payton Sandfort and Josh Dix, who finished with 23 and 27 points, respectively, but their attempts clanged off the rim.
But those sounds weren’t the death knell for the Hawkeyes – Smith’s roar on the next possession was.
A between-the-legs dribble on the left wing was all it took to beat Dix. Rising toward the rim and colliding with Iowa, forward Ladji Dembele, the 6-foot Smith, wrapped a pass around his 6-foot-8 defender and into the arms of Boilermaker teammate Trey Kaufman-Renn for a layup on the opposite block.
Grabbing his grey jersey with pride, Smith turned toward his bench, flashing the block-lettered “Purdue” as if to announce his the Boilermakers’ quest for a third-straight Big Ten title still has plenty of steam.
Meanwhile, the Hawkeyes’ season continued to leak fuel, as they failed to win the rebound battle, and allowed open shots for much of the second half in their fifth loss in six games.
“That’s what I’ll be thinking about for a long time,” Sandfort said in his postgame press conference. “I think that hurts, but I’m proud of the way I fought, the way all of us fought to be in that position, especially the way we started the second half.”
Purdue entered the game with the third-best three-point percentage in the Big Ten and opened the second half of the contest with evidence it could lead the nation. The Boilermakers splashed their first five attempts from long range and finished the final frame making 9-of-15 tries – good enough for 60 percent.
While an open shooter for Purdue was a common sight in the second half, the previous 20 minutes were a battle for spacing. A combination of an Iowa guard and big man would double-team Smith and other Boilermaker guards near halfcourt. This strategy forced two turnovers and ignited the home crowd, which was left speechless at the final buzzer as Smith worked his magic again.
Once again near midcourt as the final seconds ticked off the clock, Smith found dribbed to the beak of the Tigerhawk, and without a defender in his face, launched a triple that thrashed the twine, knotting the game at 36 and prefacing the start of a torrid second half.
“We did a really good job at making him uncomfortable there for the first 18 minutes, and then we let him get in his rhythm,” Sandfort said. “And when he’s comfortable, that’s when he’s just dangerous.”
Dix said Purdue limited the amount of ball screens and relied on more off-ball movement in the second half, limiting congestion and creating open shooters. The Hawkeyes, in the eyes of head coach Fran McCaffery, couldn’t respond effectively.
“Our rotations weren’t what we needed them to be,” McCaffery said. “We can’t let them go on that kind of run.”
With help from second-year guard Brock Harding – coming off the bench for the first time this season – the Hawkeyes trimmed the lead to single digits and stayed within striking distance down the stretch. Harding pitched in 11 points and an assist in the second frame – a no-look dime to fourth-year Riley Mulvey, who made the first start of his career in place of Freeman.
For Purdue head coach Matt Painter, Iowa’s offense excelled by relying on jump stops in the middle of the floor that momentarily paused the game and allowed for teammates to cut open near the basket. Dix and Sandfort shot 10-of-17 from the field in the second half.
“We got to do a better job at concentrating,” he said. “But what [Iowa] does is they make multiple cuts and make you make multiple decisions. It’s something we don’t see a great deal of in college basketball.”
The Hawkeyes shot 50 percent from the floor in the first half and 51 percent for the game, yet their free-throw percentage lingered. They made only 2-of-7 attempts in the first half and finished 10-of-16 overall.
Iowa’s starting lineup featured two new additions in Mulvey and Seydou Traore, who made the first start of his Iowa career after transferring from Manhattan in the offseason. Traore didn’t score and played only two minutes in the second half.
“You have to have a certain mindset to play against Purdue, and [Traore] didn’t have it at that juncture [in the second half],” McCaffery said.
In addition to Mulvey, forwards Ladji Dembele and Even Brauns also saw minutes to replace Freeman, who wasn’t in attendance for the game. McCaffery said the sophomore was recovering from surgery.
Without Freeman down low, the Hawkeyes arc to the Big Ten Tournament only got more murky. The loss to the Boilermakers only made it more transparent the steep climb necessary to reach Indianapolis.
“Every game is really close in the Big Ten, so just those possessions matter,” Dix said. “Just finishing possessions. And if we can get the first rebound, we like our chances in the game, because it gets our transition game going.”
Up Next
Iowa hosts No. 21 Wisconsin Saturday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena at noon. The Badgers are 18-5 overall with a 8-4 mark in conference play.
Last season’s leading scorer A.J. Storr transferred to Kansas over the offseason, but the Badgers have replaced the production from the portal. In his first year in Madison, senior guard John Tonje leads Wisconsin with 18.6 points per game. The two-time transfer from Colorado State and Missouri shoots 41.9 percent from beyond the arc.
The Hawkeyes will look for revenge after a humbling contest in Madison saw them yield 116 points to the Badgers, a number that hasn’t been seen in a Big Ten conference game since 1995. The last time the two squads played at Carver, Iowa emerged victorious, 88-86, with a last-second layup from former Hawkeye guard Tony Perkins.