5 Thoughts From Purdue's 68-64 Win Over Oregon
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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — There's a reason basketball games aren't played on paper. No. 12 Purdue found that out on Saturday, as it got a handful from Oregon at Mackey Arena. Ultimately, though, the Boilermakers pulled out a 68-64 victory to improve to 19-4 on the year and 9-3 in Big Ten play.
Fletcher Loyer led the way with 18 points and four rebounds. Braden Smith had 13 points and four assists and Trey Kaufman-Renn scored 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists.
Here are a few thoughts from Saturday's win from West Lafayette.
Loyer comes up big again
Fletcher Loyer was the hero for a second straight game, hitting a late three-pointer to lift Purdue to a four-point win over Oregon. But that wasn't the only play the senior guard made on Saturday. He led the way with 18 points, hitting 3-of-4 from behind the three-point line.
Loyer also came up with a clutch rebound off of a missed free throw, was fouled, then calmly knocked down a pair of shots from the stripe.
In his last two games, Loyer has scored 47 total points and has made 10 of his last 14 shots from the perimeter. After averaging 6.5 points per game in a four-game stretch, it's good to see the senior guard shooting the basketball with confience.
No answers for Bittle
Nate Bittle had missed nearly a month with a lower-body injury, but he didn't have any rust on Saturday. The 7-footer scored 23 points, shot 14 free throws and grabbed five rebounds. The one hindrance to his game was the three-point shooting, as he connected on just 1-of-8 shots from the perimeter.
Oscar Cluff and Daniel Jacobsen seemed to struggle with Bittle in the post, especially early on. Purdue made the switch to put Kaufman-Renn on Oregon's 7-footer, which seemed to help in the second half. He still thrived in the post, which aided the Ducks' 30 points in the paint.
Pick-and-pop bigs have been an issue for Purdue this season. Even when Bittle wasn't effecitve from distance, his ability to play in the paint was a problem.
Rebounding wasn't a huge advantage
Purdue is a team that relies heavily on its rebounding to win games. It failed to be a big advantage for the Boilermakers against Oregon. Kaufman-Renn was aggressive on the glass, pulling down eight rebounds. Nobody else had more than four boards in the contest.
The Boilers still outrebounded the Ducks 32-28, but it should've been a much larger advantage. Purdue only surrendered seven offensive rebounds, but they were timely. Oregon got seven points off of those opportunities, which isn't a huge number, but it was a factor in this game.
A potential return to small-ball?
With Cluff and Jacobsen, Purdue is supposed to be a much better rebounding team and a squad that has improved rim protection and post defense compared to last season. That's been an issue over the last three weeks for the Boilermakers.
Should Purdue implement a small-ball lineup a little more frequently? Last year, the Boilermakers proved it could win games by dominating on the offensive end. If rebounding isn't going to be an edge for this team, should it push all of its chips in and try to win games in shootout fashion?
It may be too late to make a major switch, and having Cluff and Jacobsen can still provide some advantages for Purdue, but they need to be more effective on the glass and protecting the rim.
Coming through in the clutch
It may not have been pretty, but the important thing for Purdue is that it got the win. Sometimes, you have to grind out a win, even against teams that are struggling.
Purdue could have allowed this one to slip away and ruin its chances to win a Big Ten title. But when the Boilermakers needed to make plays, make shots, get stops and pull down rebounds, they did it.
Can they carry any of this momentum into a critical two-game road trip against Nebraska and Iowa?
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PURDUE-OREGON GAME BLOG: Recap some of the moments throughout Saturday's game between No. 12 Purdue and Oregon. CLICK HERE
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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