Purdue Women’s Basketball Closes Non-Conference Season at 9-5

I figured it was time to do a quick update on the women’s basketball team. Our long-time writer WBBFAN has had to step down recently, so I will pick up the slack and at least try to do a few articles going forward.

As far as the season overall goes, it has not been great. Purdue has lost to Ball State and Ohio at home. The three major conference teams it has played (Georgia Tech, USC, Utah) were losses as well. It also took some losses in terms of the roster:

Purdue did win the Basketball Travlers Inc. Invitational yesterday with a 70-60 win over St. Mary’s. It also defeated Tennessee-Martin 60-58 and Eastern Washington 65-40 in the event hosted at Mackey Arena. Sophomore Ae’Rianna Harris was named tournament most valuable player after her second straight double-double, while classmate Dominique Oden was named to the all-tournament team.

Harris finished with 13 points, 10 rebounds, a career-high five assists and five blocked shots, notching her second straight double-double and sixth of the season; tying Purdue’s sophomore record for double-doubles. McLaughlin posted a game-high 17 points, hitting a career-high five triples, and added five assists with no turnovers. Oden hit three triples on her way to 14 points, adding five rebounds and three assists, while Cooper stuffed the stat sheet with 13 points, five rebounds, six assists and two steals.

It is a bit of a bittersweet win with what will be a short bench the rest of the season. Murphy had played in every game before yesterday, but Purdue is down to a small 7-man rotation. Freshman Karissa McLaughlin has been a solid addition, but there is virtually no depth on this team. They have also put up some atrocious turnover numbers. In the 77-71 loss to Ohio Purdue had 33 turnovers in 40 minutes.

Big Ten play starts next Thursday at Rutgers, but the Lady Boilers have a lot to work on before then.