Despite hanging with the Purdue Boilermakers in the first half and being down by only two points at the break, the Auburn men's basketball team could not keep up with Purdue in the second half. The nationally ranked Boilermakers came alive in the second half, and shot their way to a 96-71 victory over the Tigers.
“I’m disappointed that Purdue’s guards scored as well as they did,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. “Their backcourt really hurt us, really hurt us in transition. I wanted to play fast and they were better playing fast than we were. Disappointed.”
Freshman guard Danjel Purifoy led the way for the Tigers, scoring 22 points. Aside from Purifoy, Auburn was 19-for-50 from the field. Guards T.J. Dunans, Bryce Brown and TJ Lang combined for a disappointing 5-of-20 from the field.
Purdue (4-1) could not be cooled from behind the arc, as they made 17-of-26 from three point land. The two Boilermaker big men, Issac Hass and Caleb Swanigan both had double doubles, and bullied the Tigers defense throughout the contest.
Swanigan had 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Hass added 10 points and 10 rebounds. Six total Purdue players finished in double figures as the Boilermakers shot 64 percent from the field. Carson Edwards led the Purdue attack with 21 points.
“I thought we had to make threes," Pearl said. "I thought we had to make shots and we didn’t, and boy did they.”
Pearl was encouraged by a strong first half from the Tigers.
"It does tell you the potential that we have. We are a young team."
Auburn will return home to take on USC Upstate on Tuesday night in Auburn Arena. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. CST and the contest can be seen on the SEC Network+.
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