Purdue 100, Jacksonville 57- Game Wrap

It was a sloppy night of basketball, with Jacksonville coming to Mackey Arena to take on the #1 Purdue Boilermakers ahead of Purdue's Christmas break, but Purdue dominated the Dolphins, heading into Christmas with a 100-57 victory.

Lance Jones decided to give Mackey Arena a present. With around 2:00 minutes left in the first half, Jacksonville's Stephon Payne III held the ball in his hands and made the mistake of turning his back and not accounting for Jones, who took off from his guy on the corner and knocked the ball out of Payne's hand. The ball bounded forward, and Jones went after it.

Jones got to the ball first, then burst forward ahead of everyone around mid-court. Mackey Arena was waiting as Jones seemed to size up the open space ahead of him, and the crowd crescendoed as Jones launched up and threw down a one-hand dunk with authority.

The dunk gave Purdue a 45-25 lead with less than two-minutes to play in the first half, and was one of ten forced turnovers by the Boilers in the first half that helped Purdue pull away from the Dolphins early and maintain throughout the game.

A 10-0 run to start the half by Purdue's starters put this one out of hand a few minutes into the second half, with Purdue taking a 57-27 lead when Zach Edey found Trey Kaufman-Renn down low for a lay up.

On a night where some of Purdue's heavy-hitters had light work, Trey Kaufman-Renn led the way early with his scoring and rebounding. Kaufman-Renn finished the game with 15 pooints, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists in just 19 minutes of play.

He was bolstered by Zach Edey's usual dominance which saw Edey go for 18 points and 8 rebounds in 24 minutes of play.

Lance Jones reached double-figures as well, knocking down two threes, getting 3 steals, and going for 16 points.

On a night where Edey didn't have to play the final half of the second half, Edey finished the game with 18 points, 8 rebounds, and 2 assists in 24 minutes of action. Edey's passing in and out of double-teams was one of the keys for Purdue's offense in the first half. Then, Jacksonville had to contend with an aggressive to score Edey in the second half. That led to fouls, as it usually does and Edey was perfect from the line, knocking down all 8 of his free throw attempts.

Braden Smith has jumped onto the national scene in the last couple weeks with his scoring, going for 20+ against both Alabama and Arizona in back to back games. But Smith did what he's done on a couple occasions this season when Purdue played teams that couldn't stick with his teammates, he let them show off.

Smith was satiated being a play maker against the Dolphins on Thursday night. Smith took just two shots, hitting a pull up jumper from mid-range to start the second half and missing an early lay up on a cut in the first.

Instead, in his 23 minutes, Smith set up his teammates and took the ball from Jacksonville. Smith had 6 assists and 3 steals on the night.

Lance Jones was too quck and too physical for Jacksonville. Jones got the game started early with his defensive, getting to 3 steals, and using that to spark his transition offense. There was a lot of breakaways from the transfer from Southern Illinois and he treated Mackey Arena to a couple breakaway dunks on a night where Jones only had to play 20 minutes.

Lance Jones had 16 points and knocked down 2 of 6 threes for the night.