Purdue women's basketball dropped a spot in the Big Ten standings on Wednesday night, falling 74-61 to Minnesota in Mackey Arena. The Boilermakers found themselves down 11 in the third quarter and while a valiant comeback effort was put forth, Katie Gearlds and company couldn't cap off the effort.

Purdue has now dropped back-to-back games since winning two of three, falling to 9-17 overall and 2-13 in Big Ten play on the season.

After falling behind 5-0, the Boilermakers got the offense rolling, going on a 9-3 run, getting contributions from Rashunda Jones, Sophie Swanson and Kendall Puryear. It would be a precursor for what was to come for much of the first half as that trio accounted for all of the Boilermakers' scoring in the opening frame.

Eight lead changes occurred in the first quarter, in what was a back and forth affair through ten minutes of action. The Gophers held the largest lead of the quarter after their 5-0 to start, at just three, while the Boilermakers had one of their best first quarters in recent memory.

Purdue shot 56% from the field, but took nine less shots than the Gophers, thanks to five offensive rebounds, which led to eight second chance points. The Boilermakers went the final 3:53 without a field goal, but free throws from Jones and Swanson kept the Minnesota lead to just one heading into the second quarter.

Sophie Swanson broke that drought in the first minute of the second frame, knocking down her first triple of the game. After a pair of Sophie Hart layups to knot things up at 22-22, the Boilermakers went on a brief 5-0 run to take what was their largest lead to that point, holding a 27-22 advantage with 6:31 remaining in the first half.

Minnesota would then cut the lead down to one before Swanson hit another three and McKenna Layden got a pull-up jumper to fall, moving the lead to six. The Gophers then had another response up their sleeve, with an 8-0 run of their own to steal the lead heading into halftime.

Purdue was paced by the guard tandem of Sophie Swanson and Rashunda Jones in the first half, who combined for 22 points and knocked down all three of the Boilermakers' triples in the half. After a furious start, Kendall Puryear also had six points. That trio helped guide Purdue to 54% shooting in the first half, including 37% from three-point range.

Minnesota also leaned on its big, Sophie Hart, who had her way against Purdue's freshmen front court duo, to the tune of 16 points on 8-9 shooting from the field. Grace Grocholski also chipped in 12 points, while no other Gopher had more than four points.

Purdue quickly tied the game at 36-36 less than 30 seconds into the third quarter with a Swanson layup, but the Gophers responded with a 9-0 run in just short of two minutes of game action to make it a 45-36 game at the 7:52 mark.

After a jumper by Lana McCarthy and two Rashunda Jones free throws, Purdue cut the deficit to five, but Minnesota would go on to outscore the Boilermakers 8-2 over the next two minutes to extend its lead to 11 with 3:11 left in the third quarter. Grace Grocholski and Amiyah Battle both knocked down triples, followed by two free throws from Battle.

Kendall Puryear connected on a pair of midrange jumpers to get the Boilermakers back within seven heading into the fourth quarter. Prior to those two makes, Purdue was just 3-11 from the field in the quarter.

Purdue began the fourth quarter by locking in defensively against the Gophers, holding them without a field goal for the first four minutes of the final frame. A triple by Destini Lombard and jumpers from Sophie Swanson and Puryear cut the lead to just three with 6:54 to play, and handed the Boilermakers some much needed confidence.

That would not be sustained, however, as the Gophers would put together an 8-0 run after the lid finally came off the basket to push the lead back to 11 with 3:04 to play. Purdue made only one field goal in the final 6:54 of the game, shooting less than 30% from the field in the fourth quarter to ultimately fall.

Sophie Swanson continued her high scoring output trend of late, finishing with a team-high 18 points on 6-14 shooting and a 2-5 clip from three-point range. Swanson, while shooting below 40%, has reached double-figures in five of her last six games. Rashunda Jones also finished with 14 points, while dishing out a game-high nine assists and a team-high six rebounds.

Kendall Puryear provided a spark during Purdue's comeback bid in the second half, scoring ten of her 16 points after halftime. The standout rookie forward was an efficient 8-11 from the field also had five rebounds in the defeat.

Destini Lombard was the only other Boilermaker to score more than four points, finishing with seven, in addition to three rebounds.

The Boilermakers had trouble containing Minnesota's high scoring duo of Grace Grocholski and Sophie Hart, who paced the Gophers throughout the game. Grocholski finished with a game-high 27 points, while Hart had 22 points on a near flawless 11-14 shooting. Leading scorer Amiyah Battle was largely held in check, shooting 2/7 from the field, but finished with 11 points on the night.

Purdue will look to snap its two-game skid on Sunday afternoon against a top ten Ohio State squad in Columbus.