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More: Purdue opens season with two suspended
A night after Halloween, No. 15 Purdue hosted Southern Indiana for an exhibition game with a veritable skeleton crew, down three scholarship players.
That made things hard.
But the Boilermakers' formidable front line made things look easy enough that it hardly matter.
Behemoth Isaac Haas missed just one of his 11 shots and finished with 25 points, despite missing 10 free throws. Caleb Swanigan scored 16 points and finished a rebound and three assists shy of a triple double. Vincent Edwards scored 11 on 5-of-7 shooting as Purdue's formidable frontcourt combined to score 52 points in the Boilermakers' 85-63 exhibition victory.
Purdue played without forward Basil Smotherman and guard Ryan Cline, each of them suspended for the first three games - including the exhibition and Sunday's scrimmage against West Virginia - for disciplinary matters. Also, big man Jacquil Taylor missed the game with injury.
"It happens," junior and team captain Dakota Mathias said. "People get hurt, things happen. You just have to deal with it."
Purdue did so because of its front line.
The Screaming Eagles' only answer to the impossibility of their physical matchup with the 7-foot-2, 290-pound Haas was to hope he missed free throws, which he did. Otherwise, he did what he wanted, scoring around the basket at will, thanks in part to some generally outstanding entry passing by Boilermaker teammates.
Swanigan was part of that effort, finishing with seven assists, several of them to Haas, to go along with own 7-of-11 shooting. Edwards was 5-of-7 from the floor.
In total, Purdue shot just under 59 percent, buoyed on the perimeter by newcomer Spike Albrecht, who debuted nicely, with 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting, 3-of-4 from three-point range, with four assists against just one turnover.
But it was anything but a flawless performance by depth-less Purdue.
One of the best rebounding teams you'll find last season got outrebounded by USI 37-34.
"We got outworked on the boards," Haas said. "(Southern Indiana) came with a fight, hyped up, trying to make an upset."
More to come ...
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