Game 468 - Rutgers at Purdue

January 3 at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, IN
Big 10 Network

This was definitely a strength against a strength situation as Rutgers came into the night as one of the better defensive teams in the country and Purdue as one of the nation's better three-point shooting teams.

It was lopsided in the Boilermakers' favor.

Purdue his 10 threes and shot 50% overall from the field in its 10th consecutive victory, 82-51.

The Scarlet Knights (now 0-3 in conference play) entered play sixth nationally in both scoring defense and field goal percentage defense, and actually did a pretty decent job inside the paint, especially considering Purdue boasts 7-2 Isaac Haas and 7-3 Matt Haarms (the pair combined for 18 points, 14 of which came from Haas, in 51 combined minutes). But the hosts' outside shooting was too much to overcome. Purdue, 12th nationally in three-point percentage, hit 7-of-12 from behind the arc in the opening half to go up 45-24 at the break and were never really threatened much throughout the night.

Reserve guard Ryan Cline led the way with a 4-for-6 night from distance.

Haas and Haarms, who added six rebounds each and four blocked shots (three from the redshirt-freshman Haarms) also negated a Rutgers team that was second in the country in offensive rebounds. The Scarlet Knights averaged 16 coming in, but grabbed just six Wednesday.

Rutgers got as close as 57-42 with 11 minutes to go, but allowed a 18-3 run over the next seven minutes.