Purdue's pressure against Alcorn State was so good that coach Matt Painter couldn't tell how well his team's defense performed overall.
The 14th-ranked Boilermakers forced 28 turnovers in a 103-48 win over the Braves on Wednesday night, limiting the chances for Painter to assess his team's halfcourt defense.
''When somebody can't get into their offense, it's not a real gauge on what your defense can do,'' Painter said. ''Our pressure knocked them off, they couldn't get into their offense. Sometimes, it's fool's gold.''
Not necessarily. When the Braves got past the pressure, Purdue held them to 29 percent shooting.
Purdue led 59-17 at halftime, and by 62 points with 9:41 to play. Purdue held Howard to 25 percent shooting three days earlier.
The offense was effective for the second straight game. A day after star forward Robbie Hummel had ACL surgery, E'Twaun Moore had 19 points, seven assists and six rebounds, John Hart scored a career-high 16 points and made 4 of 6 3-pointers, Sandi Marcius had 12 points and eight rebounds and JaJuan Johnson added 12 points for the Boilermakers (2-0), who shot 52 percent from the field.
Hart, a reserve, has made 8 of 11 3-pointers this season.
''It's something I've worked on in the offseason,'' Hart said. ''You have guys like Lewis Jackson, JaJuan and E'Twaun and just have people collapse on them, so I figured that's a place to work on.''
The 55-point win was Purdue's largest margin of victory since 1983, when the Boilermakers beat Tampa 106-50. The point total was the highest since 1998, when Purdue defeated Ohio State 107-75.
Kendrick McDonald scored 13 points for Alcorn State (0-3).
Purdue quickly took the lead and thrilled the crowd with several spectacular plays. Willis Brownlee blocked Moore's layup, but Moore got the rebound and made a reverse layup. Minutes later, Moore found D.J. Byrd on a behind-the-back pass, and Byrd made a reverse layup to give the Boilermakers a 16-7 lead.
Hart drained three 3-pointers in a 1:07 stretch to give Purdue a 27-12 edge.
Purdue's Patrick Bade got open and hammered down an emphatic two-handed jam, then hung on the rim and drew a technical foul. The student section didn't mind, though, and chanted Bade's name. His dunk gave Purdue a 37-12 lead.
Moore had 15 points, six assists and five rebounds at the break as the Boilermakers shot 58.5 percent from the floor. Purdue held the Braves to 24 percent shooting and forced them into 18 turnovers in the first 20 minutes.
Johnson, a senior center, made the first 3-pointer of his career early in the second half to push Purdue's lead to 63-17.
''Coach Painter said you have to act like you're been there before,'' he said. ''I haven't. But it was pretty cool. Took me till my senior year but finally got one. So I was pretty excited, just couldn't show it too much, the game was still going on.''
The Boilermakers scored their 100th point on a putback by Bade.
It was an all-around effort for the Boilermakers. Thirteen different players logged at least seven minutes, and all but one scored at least three points. Point guard Lewis Jackson had seven assists and one turnover, Byrd had five assists and five rebounds, freshman Travis Carroll had eight points and seven rebounds and freshman Terone Johnson had nine points and three steals.
''It's just a time for everybody to get minutes, get better because down at the end of the road, we're going to need Sandi, Patrick, the top guy on the bench to all the starters, we'll need everyone,'' JaJuan Johnson said. ''So, it's good being able to get people this experience early on.''
