Purdue women's basketball report for Thursday: 3 things to know

Low turnover numbers, quick timeout against Rutgers and the quality of competition increases during the upcoming stretch

Three things to know about the Purdue women’s basketball team:

“I THINK WE LEARNED OUR LESSON”

A combined 22 turnovers in the last two games for the Boilermakers after committing more than 20 in three different games.

Progress is being made in this area, but now is not the time to lose focus taking care of the ball.

“I think we learned our lesson,” senior guard Abbey Ellis said.

They were tough lessons where the players were held accountable for their actions. The turnovers were slowing down the offense. Against Rutgers and Wisconsin, Purdue attempted 68 and 63 field goal attempts, respectively, and scored 77 and 89 points.

The Boilermakers shot 51.5% against the Badgers but just 44.4% against the Scarlet Knights, but that mark should’ve been higher if not for missing their last seven attempts.

More shots equal more chances to score and that’s where the offense stands heading into Saturday’s matchup at Maryland.

“We’re physically getting more shots up,” Ellis said. “We’re attempting way more shots, and that, combined with taking our open shots, it’s a combination of both. We’re able to get out in transition and get high-percentage shots.”

The ability to take care of the ball has limited opponents’ easy scoring opportunities. Wisconsin and Rutgers scored a combined nine points off turnovers. Meanwhile, the Boilermakers scored 41 points off turnovers in the last two games.

The benefit of taking care of the ball is pretty clear. How long can Purdue keep this up? We’ll find out Saturday since the Terrapins are forcing 18.3 turnovers in their three Big Ten games.

Purdue senior Abbey Ellis drives against Rutgers (Dave Wegiel Photography)

QUICK TIMEOUT

With only 1:18 expired off the clock after Rutgers sharpshooter Jillian Huerter drained a 3-pointer in transition in front of Purdue’s bench, Gearlds called a timeout.

“We hadn’t executed one thing right defensively that we had talked about for two days. I needed to remind them that was not OK,” Gearlds said.

The lack of communication was the reason Gearlds was angered.  

“We didn’t stick to what defense we were supposed to be in,” Ellis said. “We manned up when we wanted to go zone. We didn’t communicate with each other well. She was upset, which was fair enough.”

NEXT STRETCH

It was imperative that the Boilermakers won their last two games.

They were both at home against lower division teams and Purdue needed to win games against that caliber of competition. Now comes the next stretch of games.

Saturday at Maryland. Wednesday at Mackey Arena against No. 4 Iowa and then a week off and a trip to Penn State before hosting No. 14 Indiana on Jan. 21. The step up in class will signal if the Boilermakers are ready to compete with the upper echelon of the conference and how they perform away from home against quality opponents.

The 10-game home-court winning streak will be tested by the Hawkeyes.

“I know we can’t do anything about that Minnesota game – that was an opportunity for us to be sitting at 3-0,” coach Katie Gearlds said of the two-point loss in Minneapolis last month. “We feel like we let that one go. We’ve got to make sure we find a way to replace that game. It’s kind of a little bit of a gauntlet for us.”

Overall, the Boilermakers have won three straight and seven of their last nine. The recent success allows Purdue to take confidence into the next stretch of games.

“We’re going to take that confidence with us, and we hold ourselves to a standard and it’s non-negotiable to win the games we should win like at home,” Ellis said. “We made a goal this year to win some away games and knuckle down against bigger teams. It was a really good stretch for us, but the focus is on the next (game).”

SATURDAY’S GAME

Purdue (9-5, 2-1) at Maryland (10-4, 2-1)

Time: 4:30 p.m.

TV: BTN

Radio: BOB-FM