Purdue women's basketball defeated Purdue Northwest Pride 98-67 in their exhibition game Sunday afternoon.
Purdue came out flat in the first quarter, turning the ball over three times in their first four possessions. Coach Katie Gearlds said the slow start had to do with the Purdue Northwest zone that they did not anticipate, "That just kind of slowed us down, started second guessing a little bit. We only got one assist to 10 turnovers at the end of the first quarter."
Led by Cassidy Hardin's sharpshooting from three-point range, Purdue made the necessary adjustments and scored 34 points in the second quarter. Hardin got the offense going for the Boilermakers with back-to-back makes from beyond the arc just 36 seconds apart. Hardin finished with 9 points and led the team with three makes from three-point range.
As a team, Purdue shot 73% from the field in the second quarter, with Lasha Petree and Caitlyn Harper each scoring 8 points.
"We didn't tell them to do anything different in the second quarter," said Gearlds. "Just play off instinct, make basketball plays, use your talent and our group just responded in the second quarter."
Building off of their solid second quarter, Purdue shot the ball well for the rest of the game. The Boilermakers finished the game shooting 56.6% from the floor and scored an impressive 98 points. Last season they eclipsed that mark just once, coming against Denver when they scored 101 points.
Lasha Petree, Caitlyn Harper, Jayla Smith, Rickie Woltman, and Jeanae Terry made up the five Boilermakers to finish the game scoring in double-figures,
The two transfers Katie Gearlds brought in led the way for Purdue. Caitlyn Harper, a Cal Baptist transfer, had a game-high 22 points and was 10-13 on field goals. Harper dominated the undersized low post of Purdue Northwest. She used a wide variety of moves around the basket to score.
Katie Gearlds said of Harper, "I thought we did a really good job of throwing the ball when she was open, but she did a good job of timing things up so she could get opportunities to score."
Lasha Petree also had a stellar Purdue debut after coming in from Rutgers this off-season. From the start, Petree was the most active player on the defensive end for either team. She finished with two steals and a block, but there were a dozen times she either knocked the ball out of bounds or forced an errant pass. She was also the second leading scorer behind Harper, scoring 14 points on 4 of 9 shooting.
"She just gives us some length, great great athlete. She's long anyways, but when she puts her arms out there, it just feels like they go forever," Gearlds said when asked about what Petree's defense brings to this team.
The Pride shot 50% from the field in the first half, which saw them score 40 points. Petree played a large part in Purdue's defense in locking down during the second half when they held Purdue Northwest to just 27 points on 23% shooting.
Harper said of the exhibition, “I think there’s a lot of things we can learn from it. A lot of places we can get better at, but I think it was good just to get out on the court and play against someone else.”
Senior guard, Abbey Ellis, left the game in the first quarter with a shoulder injury. There was no update immediately available.
Purdue's first regular season game comes in four days when they host Marshall in Mackey Arena on Thursday evening.
