WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The nation's 11th ranked Purdue men's basketball team used its obvious size advantage to wear down and eventually wilt the IUPUI basketball team as the host Boilers put up an emphatic 80-53 win over the Jaguars inside Mackey Arena on Monday (Dec. 7). Purdue (9-0) outscored the Jaguars 42-23 in the second half, including a 24-1 run to send the Jaguars away after the guests had hung around for 25 minutes. 

A.J. Hammons led five Boilers in double-digits with 14 points off the bench and Kendall Stephens chimed in with 13 points, including hitting 3-of-6 from deep. Freshman phenom added Caleb Swanigan added 11 points, 14 boards and four assists as Purdue won the glass, 38-32 and outscored the Jags in the paint, 38-16. 

Junior Darell Combs led three Jags (3-7) in double-figures with 14 points and Jordan Pickett contributed 11 points and four rebounds. Junior Matt O'Leary finished with 10 points, all coming in the second half. 

"It tough because I thought our bigs did a good job of battling them, but they do a good job of keeping those guys fresh and keep rotating in fresh bigs," IUPUI Head Coach Jason Gardner said. "I thought our strength tonight was our speed and we tried to bring their bigs away from the basket, but they have a lot of length and the guard spots too. They were able to get a blocked shot here or there and it gave them some energy and got them going."

Purdue controlled the energy early, building a quick 15-6 lead on an aerial assault from three-point range. The hosts hit three of their first four triples, the third coming from Vince Edwards, to take an early advantage. However, IUPUI fired back with a 10-2 run, fueled by a pair of Nick Osborne treys, the second of which tied the score at 22 all. Fist pumps and smiles quickly turned to another uphill climb as a Stephens trey sparked a 12-0 Purdue run over the next five-plus minutes before Combs and Pickett helped the Jags closed within eight by halftime. 

The second half began well as an O'Leary trey at the 18:11 mark cut the Purdue lead to 40-35, but at the defensive end, Osborne picked up a pair of fouls, anchoring him to the bench for the remainder of the night. With littler resistance, both literally and figuratively, the Boilers opted to throw the ball inside repeatedly. The outcome was a 24-1 surge that lasted nearly eight minutes that turned an eight-point game into a 31-point quota filler. Purdue came into the night on an eight-game winning streak, having won those eight games by an average of 25 points per contest. 

"I think we tried to hit the homerun," Gardner said of his team's struggles during the run. "We were trying to hit the 10-point shot, rather than trying to chip away. We told the guys afterwards that through adversity, we've got to find ways to get back in it. We'll go back and look at the film and take some positives away and take some negatives from it."

IUPUI started the game shooting well, but finished at just 32.8 percent overall and made just 9-of-31 (29 percent) second half attempts. The Boilers entered play among the nation's best in field goal percentage defense at 33.1 percent and contributed to the Jaguars' sour shooting by swatting nine shots. 7-foot-2 sophomore Isaac Haas had 10 points and three blocked shots in just 17 minutes and both Hammons and Stephens added a pair of rejections. Offensively, Purdue closed at 52 percent overall and made nearly 58 percent of its second half shot attempts. The Boilers also outrebounds the Jaguars 22-12 in the second half after being outrebounded by four at the break. 

"It was great to play in this environment and great to play a top ranked team in the country," Gardner said. "We'll learn from it, but they're a really good team."

Barksdale scored IUPUI's first five points of the game while working against the bigger Swanigan and finished with seven points. Mason Archie grabbed a team-high five boards off the bench and freshman T.J. Henderson added four assists and two steals. The loss dropped IUPUI to 0-14 all-time against nationally ranked opponents and 0-2 all-time against Purdue after also losing in Mackey Arena last season. 

The Jaguars will continue the treacherous non-conference schedule on Thursday when IUPUI plays at Missouri State at 8:05 p.m. Eastern. That game will be heard on 107.5 FM as Tom Ladd (pxp) is on the call and will be broadcast nationally on ESPN3.