OMAHA — It doesn’t matter.
It didn’t matter last year when Purdue lost a charity exhibiton game at Arkansas and it doesn’t matter that it fell 93-87 Saturday night at Creighton.
After trailing by as many as 13, Purdue was with five in the final minute
What matters is that Purdue’s questions and potential weaknesses got exposed by one of the better offensive programs in America.
The Blue Jays hurt Purdue’s dribble-containment and defense and exposed the Zach Edey-less Boilermakers at the rim, outscoring Purdue without really stopping it. Purdue did shoot better than 50 percent deep into the game, getting 31 from Braden Smith, 22 from Trey Kaufman-Renn and 17 from Fletcher Loyer.
But Creighton made 13 threes and still ran a lay-up line of cutting buckets in the second half, shooting 60-plus-percent.
Creighton made 10 first-half three-pointers en route to leading by as many as 11, but Purdue’s hodge-podge lineups cobbled together enough scoring, defense and rebounds to bring the visitors within just two in the final minute of the first half.
Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn accounted for all but three of its 36 first-half points. Daniel Jacobsen and CJ Cox were the only other Boilermakers to score.
MORE TO COME
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