Braden Smith's Poor First Half Still Bothered Him After Purdue's Win Over Iowa
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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Braden Smith is a perfectionist who plays an imperfect game. Even though he had a monster second-half performance in No. 5 Purdue's 79-72 win over Iowa on Wednesday night, all he could think about was his play in the first 20 minutes.
Smith struggled in the first half, going scoreless and dishing out four assists as the Boilermakers trailed the Hawkeyes 34-31 at the break. He was able to turn things around coming out of the locker room.
The senior guard ended the game with 16 points, eight assists, and two steals to get the win over a pesky Iowa squad. After the game, Smith was asked about his performance in the second half, but he was still upset about the way he played to start the game.
"I'm just thinking about the first half, how bad I sucked," Smith said. "If I'm going to be completely honest, it was really frustrating. I have to be better because we shouldn't have even been in that spot, because I should have been better in the beginning. I'm not even worried about the second half."
Iowa put a serious scare in Purdue at Mackey Arena. Not only did the Hawkeyes have a three-point lead at halftime, but Trey Kaufman-Renn and Oscar Cluff had also both picked up two fouls. Smith wasn't himself in the first 20 minutes.
Early in the second half, Iowa pushed that lead all the way out to nine points. Smith took a lot of the blame, saying he should have played better and not been in a situation where the Boilers had to overcome that type of deficit.
"I had a horrible first half," Smith said. "For me, understanding that I can't let these guys down because we have goals, which is to win a Big Ten championship. We can't afford to lose a game at home. For me, I don't really speak a lot, but leading by example is the biggest thing."
Smith can be critical of his first-half performance, but he found his rhythm in the second half and kept Purdue undefeated in Big Ten play.
Big plays in the second half
Smith made some big shots at pivotal times in the second half on Wednesday night. When Iowa jumped out to a 48-39 advantage, the senior guard decided it was time to take over the game.
He buried pull-up jumpers on back-to-back possessions to cut Iowa's lead to just five points. Then, around the 10-minute mark, he converted back-to-back old-fashioned three-point plays, putting Purdue ahead 53-52 with 9:34 to play.
Coach Matt Painter said those moments gave Purdue confidence at an important moment.
"I think a big part of a surge back is when they got us down nine, Braden came right out and hit a pull-up, he gets to the basket then," Painter said. "Just to get that confidence, we needed him to get going, and he obviously did so."
Smith has been Purdue's top scorer over the last three games, dropping in 23 against Washington, torching Penn State for 26, and getting 16 points in the win over Iowa. He's also averaged 9.7 assists per game in that stretch.
Maybe he didn't play well for 20 minutes against Iowa, but when Purdue needed him most, he played like the National Player of the Year.
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Dustin Schutte is the publisher of Purdue Boilermakers on SI and has spent more than a decade working in sports journalism. His career began in 2013, when he covered Big Ten football. He remained in that role for eight years before working at On SI to cover the Boilermakers. Dustin graduated from Manchester University in Indiana in 2010, where he played for the men's tennis team.
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