Fueled by defense and bench, Purdue hammers Rutgers on the road

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Shaking off shoddy shooting but falling back on emerging defense, Purdue rolled past Rutgers in Jersey Thursday, 68-50.

Braden Smith scored 16 points with 14 assists. Fletcher Loyer scored 13 while Kaufman-Renn scored most of his 16 in the final 12 minutes or so.

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Caleb Furst played one of the most impactful games of his season, if not career, as Trey Kaufman battled foul trouble most of the game. And Gicarri Harris came off the bench to make a pivotal three after Rutgers had gotten within five points with under 11 minutes left.

Rutgers turned the ball over six times in as many minutes to open the game and 12 times total in the first half. Purdue took advantage, but only to a point. The Boilermakers led by as many as 11 in the first 20 minutes, but 2-of-13 three-point shooting and 3-of-8 foul shooting prevented the visitors from really pushing its lead out. It didn’t help, either, that leading scorer Trey Kaufman-Renn barely played due to foul problems.

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