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IOWA CITY — Purdue allowed Iowa to make two out of every three shots it took after halftime, got worked over by Hawkeye star Peter Jok to the tune of 29 points and eight assists and got hammered, surprisingly, on the glass.
Yet, as the 17th-ranked Boilermakers filed off the Carver-Hawkeye Arena court after suffering an 83-78 loss to a team it obliterated just about two-and-a-half weeks ago, a loss that can certainly be viewed as a severe wound to Purdue's fledgling Big Ten title hopes, it could have lamented its own blown chances more than anything.
The Boilermakers led by nine at halftime after a late-first half flurry. From there, it had chance after chance, almost all of which went by the wayside while Iowa did what it pleased — or something close to it — offensively, not just Jok but a number of freshmen who incurred severe damage too.
• In perhaps the worst such blown chance, rich with symbolism as things slipped through Purdue's fingers, Boilermakers Caleb Swanigan and Ryan Cline lost a rebound out of bounds after Cordell Pemsl missed the front end of a one-and-one with just under 12 seconds to play. If Purdue secures that rebound, it has the ball, down one, with a chance to win it.
Instead, Iowa went to the line for two more freebies, made both and Dakota Mathias' potential game-tying three missed at the other end.
Boilermaker coach Matt Painter said the error was the result of a flawed box-out on Hawkeye freshman Tyler Cook, who got under Isaac Haas and blew up the play.
"I boxed my dude out and by the time I looked for it, it was too late for me," said Swanigan, the Big Ten's leading rebounder. "Usually I'd go get that. I was so focused on boxing out, it took a long bounce and by the time he slapped it, I didn't want to go grab it and fall out of bounds anyway. He got a hand on it. It was a good play by him."
Cline said he heard from spectators replays showed it might have been off Iowa and should have been reversed.
Painter said referees told him replays were "inconclusive."
• With 1:18 to play and Purdue down one, Isaac Haas got the ball right at the rim, for what looked like a routine bucket.
The shot caromed out off the back of the rim.
"I brought the ball down and the guy had come over," Haas said. "I adjusted my body when I should have just gone up and scored. That was just a mental error, one where I should have scored. Everybody makes mistakes. Next game, I won't make that."
With 14 seconds remaining and Purdue still down just a point, Swanigan drove from the high post and got what appeared to be an ideal look. It missed, then Swanigan was called for a foul on the rebound.
• With 2:19 left, Cline — 7-of-7 from the line this season prior to tonight — stepped to the foul line with the game tied at 78. He missed both.
"The first one, I could tell it just didn't come off my hands right," said Cline, who'd kept Purdue alive, perhaps, with back-to-back threes earlier. "The second one, I thought for sure it was in. I was shocked it didn't go in.
"Obviously, that's on me. Something I've really been working on."
• Shooting in all its forms went sideways for Purdue in the second half. After riding 7-of-12 three-point shooting in the first half to a nine-point lead at the break, the Boilermakers were 4-of-16 in the second half, a classic case of living by the three, dying by the three.
Even after getting torched in the first half, Iowa crowded the post in the second, making post touches for Haas and Swanigan difficult to come by.
During one stretch, Purdue shot threes on five consecutive possessions and missed them all. Purdue closed on a 1-of-10 run from long distance.
It was a departure from the decided win Purdue enjoyed in the first meeting between these teams, when the Boilermakers shot well in the first half, Iowa deviated from paying extra attention to the post in the second half, and Purdue's posts dominated the second.
In Round 2, Iowa dared Purdue to beat it with threes for a full 40 minutes.
"It's still the right thing to do," Painter said, as if self-scouting his own team, "to make (Purdue's shooters) beat you."
Purdue's frigid spell came as it came apart at the other end of the floor.
The Boilermakers figured Jok couldn't be again rendered a non-factor, as the Big Ten's No. 1 scorer was during the first meeting. But they hoped he wouldn't go off, either. He did just that.
Jok's 29 came on 11-of-19 shooting, 4-of-7 from three. He made long threes, contested threes, difficult driving jumpers, you name it. And he burned whatever extra attention Purdue paid him by handing out eight assists, so many of them in pick-and-roll for easy baskets.
It wasn't just Jok, though. Iowa generated so many high-percentage looks for rookie Tyler Cook around the basket, and he took advantage for 16 points. Freshman point guard Jason Bohannon made a pair of key threes in the second half, two clutch free throws in the final seconds and finished with nine assists against one turnover. Freshman forward Ryan Kriener came in averaging less than three points per game, but scored six important second-half points.
"They hit shots," Swanigan said. "They kept running pick-and-roll and Jok got going and we had to give attention from him. … They did everything they needed to and when you're playing on the road, you have to do better than that."
Purdue had no answers defensively, not for Jok, not for anything, really, a confounding development after the Boilermakers had beaten Wisconsin, maybe the Big Ten's premiere team, with defense above all else.
Now, Purdue needs answers of a different kind.
This might prove to be a damaging loss in more ways than one. But the damage can be compounded by how Purdue proceeds from here.
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