No. 20 Purdue cruises past Minnesota 81-61 with sharp 2nd half shooting by Loyer and Smith

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Fletcher Loyer scored 24 points on 8-for-10 shooting and Braden Smith had 20 points, 10 assists and six rebounds as No. 20 Purdue pulled away from Minnesota for an 81-61 victory Thursday night.

Trey Kaufman-Renn added 17 points for the Boilermakers (10-4, 2-1 Big Ten), who notched their first road win of the season after losing at Marquette and Penn State. Purdue, the two-time defending regular-season Big Ten champion, has the best cumulative road record in conference play over the last three seasons at 15-7.

Dawson Garcia scored 20 points for the Gophers (8-6, 0-3), who had a one-point lead early in the second half before the Boilermakers got hot. Loyer and Smith each hit four 3-pointers after halftime.

Minnesota, last in the Big Ten in 3-point shooting, went 4 for 17 from deep.

Takeaways

Purdue: Coach Matt Painter gave freshman guard C.J. Cox and senior center Caleb Furst their first starts of the season and brought Myles Colvin and Camden Heide off the bench. Furst had 11 points and six rebounds in 30 minutes.

Minnesota: Coach Ben Johnson has not beaten a ranked team in four seasons, falling to 0-16 against AP Top 25 opponents. The Gophers have lost 18 games in a row to ranked foes since beating No. 24 Purdue 71-68 at home on Feb. 11, 2021, under coach Richard Pitino.

Key moment

Heide, who helped lead Wayzata to a Minnesota Class 4A state championship in 2021, hit a 3-pointer with 14:49 left for a 40-35 lead after a Gophers turnover.

Key stat

Smith became the first Big Ten player with at least 1,000 points, 500 assists and 400 rebounds in a career before the end of his junior season.

Up next

Purdue hosts Northwestern on Sunday. Minnesota hosts Ohio State on Monday.

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