Rutgers 78, Purdue women's basketball 69: Scarlet Knights pull away late
The race to qualify for the Big Ten tournament took a hit Sunday.
• How damaging will this loss be at the end of the season? Fortunately, there’s time to make up ground and qualify for the Big Ten tournament. The Boilermakers lose a crucial tiebreaker to the Scarlet Knights. They’ll need to finish ahead of Rutgers in the standings. Northwestern won its first conference game on Sunday, defeating Penn State.
How the bottom of the standings look:
Wisconsin 2-11
Rutgers 2-11
Northwestern 1-10
Purdue 1-11
Penn State 1-12
Only two of those five teams will make the Big Ten tournament. The Big Ten hasn’t factored Northwestern’s situation into the mix. The Wildcats didn’t travel to Los Angeles to play two games, leaving them two short of playing a full conference schedule. Qualifying for the tournament is based on winning percentage.
Wednesday’s game against the Wildcats looms large for the Boilermakers regarding postseason chances.
• Only eight players were available for Sunday’s game. The Boilermakers dealt with a virus since the win over Wisconsin that impacted several players. McKenna Layden stayed at the team’s hotel, and her production was missed. Layden made eight 3-pointers in the last two games, and the Boilermakers started 0 of 11 from beyond the arc, and finished 4 of 21. Layden was also rebounding well after moving into the starting lineup. Rashunda Jones, Sophie Swanson, and Destini Lombard battled illness but played. IVs were administered on Saturday night to help inject fluids. However, Lombard - the team’s leading scorer - didn’t record a basket until the game was decided. This wasn’t ideal for a team that needs to be at full strength to at least have a chance. Katie Gearlds mixed and matched unfamiliar lineups to find the right combinations. By the end, Lana McCarthy, Kendall Puryear, and Swanson fouled out, leaving Gearlds with five players in the final seconds.
“Spider and Sophie are hurting right now,” Gearlds said on her postgame radio show. “I know we haven’t mentioned Des, but she’s been under something, too. We've got buckets in the timeouts, people ready to blow chunks over there, for a lack of better words. We didn't come out on top but like my kids. They laid everything on the line today.”
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• Two sequences decided this game.
Purdue fell behind early, thanks to turnovers and poor shooting, but was within 21-18. But the Scarlet Knights closed the second quarter on an 18-7 run - including seven points in 45 seconds - as JoJo Lacy and Mya Petticord combined for 12 points in the final 5:32 to build a 39-25 at halftime.
Down 16 early in the second half, the Boilermakers scored 22 points in the third quarter as Puryear and Swanson combined for 13. Two 3-pointers by Ella Collier brought Purdue to 56-55 with 7:46 to play, but Rutgers took control with an 11-0 run. Swanson missed a go-ahead layup, and Collier fouled a 3-pointer shooter. After that, Purdue didn’t respond.
The Boilermakers were outscored 29-7 during those stretches.
• Purdue made nine 3-pointers in their last two games but finished with four. Swanson was 2 of 11. Meanwhile, Rutgers was 8 of 21 from beyond the arc. The Scarlet Knights were shooting 27.8% in Big Ten games before Sunday. With Kiyomi McMiller out, Purdue focused its defense inside but didn’t rotate quickly enough to challenge perimeter shooters. The Boilermakers also didn’t stop the ball in transition, leading to crucial points.
“We knew JoJo could shoot it, and we did a poor job locating her in the zone in the first half,” Gearlds said. “She sees the ball go through the net. We told our kids, without McMiller on the court, these kids are gonna prove that they can play, and that they don't need her. And that's exactly what Rutgers did. We didn't step up and meet the challenge.”
• Turnovers put Purdue in a hole again. It committed eight in the first quarter and 12 by halftime. The final number of 18 isn’t good, but the early turnovers stymied the offense, and the Boilermakers had to play from behind again. This team doesn’t have the offensive firepower to consistently trail by double digits.
“We kind of did it to ourselves in the first half,” Gearlds said. “We just missed some bunnies. We missed some open shots. We took some quick shots that put our defense in a bind, and then we’re playing uphill the whole game.”
• Without McMiller, Lacy and Petticord stepped up to replace the freshman’s production. The duo combined for 39 points and hit five 3-pointers. McMiller is the second-highest scoring freshman in the country (18.7). Destiny Adams had 20 points and 11 rebounds.
• Reagan Bass, who moved back into the starting lineup in Layden’s absence, recorded her 1,500th career point. Bass transferred from Akron.
• Amiyah Reynolds missed her second straight game. She’s dealing with a shin injury. Freshman Jordyn Poole remained out with a high ankle sprain. It’s unlikely Reynolds and Poole will return this season.