No. 8 Purdue will face one of the Big Ten’s most dangerous unranked squads Sunday afternoon when conference foe Maryland visits West Lafayette, Ind.
The Terrapins (8-1, 1-0) coasted through their non-conference schedule before overwhelming Ohio State 83-59 in their Big Ten opener Wednesday in College Park, Md., for their fifth straight victory.
Maryland dominated the Buckeyes from the opening tip, surging to a 50-17 halftime lead and pushing the margin to 40 points early in the second half.
“(We wanted to) come out and make a statement,” said Terrapins reserve forward Tafara Gapare, who finished with 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the floor. “Tell people who we are and what we’re doing this season.”
So far, the Terrapins have been doing what they struggled to do last year: Put up points.
Maryland has averaged 86.8 points per game during non-conference play this season, up from 72.2 a year ago. The Terrapins’ 83 points on Wednesday were more than they scored in any of their 21 Big Ten games last season.
“We think it should look like that night-in and night-out, but it might not, so we’re just going to keep playing hard and try to make it look like that,” guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie said.
Gillespie led Maryland with 23 points and drilled four 3-pointers on Wednesday. The Belmont transfer averages 13.7 points per game, second on the team behind freshman Derik Queen (16.6).
Gapare is shooting 16-of-23 (69.6 percent) over his last three games after taking just nine shots across his first six games.
The Boilermakers (7-2, 0-1), meanwhile, were on the wrong end of a statement win Thursday, falling 81-70 at Penn State. Purdue committed 24 turnovers, its most in a game since November 2019. Those mistakes led to 32 points by the Nittany Lions.
“We had guys driving to their weak hand when they shouldn’t be, we had guys catching the ball in the post and just being loose with the basketball,” Boilermakers coach Matt Painter said. ” … We just have to have a better concentration and a better toughness about us.”
Trey Kaufman-Renn and Fletcher Loyer paced Purdue with 15 points apiece. They lead the Boilermakers with averages of 18.7 and 13.9 points per game, respectively.
Braden Smith, who is third on the team in scoring at 12.0, was held to six points.
Thursday’s result was not quite a stunner — Penn State also has established itself as one of the Big Ten’s most dangerous teams — but Painter had no patience for Purdue’s effort level as the game grew out of hand.
“If we were on the front line of a war (on Thursday), we’d all be dead,” he said. “Our fight wasn’t even close to Penn State’s fight.”
The loss also was a step back for a Boilermakers team that looked as if it had found its form after a productive non-conference slate. Purdue toppled then-No. 2 Alabama on Nov. 15 and added a win over then-No. 23 Ole Miss two weeks later.
“Success will mess with you,” Painter said. “Failure is something that a competitive person always responds to. But can you compete (and) concentrate after you’ve had some success here and not let that weaken you? ” … I have to do a better job of getting them ready.”
–Field Level Media
