No. 5 Purdue rallies past Iowa to win 8th straight

Braden Smith scored 16 points and dished eight assists, and No. 5 Purdue held on for a 79-72 win over Iowa in a Big Ten matchup Wednesday night in West Lafayette, Ind.

Trey Kaufman-Renn added 12 points for Purdue (16-1, 6-0), which won its eighth game in a row. Fletcher Loyer scored 11 points, and Oscar Cluff finished with 10 points on 4-for-4 shooting.

Bennett Stirtz scored 19 points on 7-for-15 shooting to lead Iowa (12-5, 2-4), which dropped its third consecutive game. Kael Combs scored 16 points and Cam Manyawu chipped in 13.

Both teams shined on offense, each shooting 52.9% (27 of 51) overall. Purdue shot 42.9% (6 of 14) from 3-point range, and Iowa shot 48% (12 of 25) from beyond the arc.

Purdue shot 19-for-22 at the free-throw line, compared with 6-for-10 shooting for Iowa.

C.J. Cox made a 3-pointer to give Purdue a 72-67 lead with 2:04 remaining.

Cooper Koch made a jump shot on the other end to trim the deficit to 72-69 with 1:38 to go.

Purdue never relented. The Boilermakers relied on a pair of free throws by Smith to increase their lead to five points with 1:04 left, and Cox sealed the victory with four more free throws over the final 36 seconds.

Iowa led by as many as nine points in the second half before the Boilermakers rallied.

Purdue led 39-38 after Kaufman-Renn converted a three-point play with 16:45 to go.

The Hawkeyes responded with a 10-0 run to pull ahead 48-39 with 14:36 remaining. Stirtz matched Kaufman-Renn with his own three-point play, Combs drained a 3-pointer and Manyawu made back-to-back dunks.

Purdue battled back to even the score at 50-all with 10:13 to go on a three-point play by Smith.

Iowa led 34-31 at the half.

Purdue's Daniel Jacobsen evened the score at 31-all with an alley-oop dunk with 1:45 remaining before the break.

Combs put Iowa on top with a 3-pointer from 26 feet with 24 seconds left in the first half.

-Field Level Media