Purdue Women’s Basketball: Indiana 66, Purdue 48

In one of the biggest games of the season (if not the biggest), the Sharon Versyp led Boilermakers fell short against 14th ranked Indiana by a score of 66-48. The team has not won in Bloomington since 2012 and will have to wait until next year to try to end that streak.

After trading baskets early in the game, Indiana went on a 15-1 run to take a 20-7 lead with 7:32 left in the first half. The Hoosiers held a 28-16 advantage at halftime and never let off the gas as they dropped 22 points in the third quarter to stretch the lead to 19 and coasted the whole fourth quarter for the win.

Purdue had an extremely frustrating offensive performance shooting just 38% (19-50) from the field including 15% (2-13) from three-point range. The team also struggled from the free throw line shooting just 57% (8-14) from the stripe.

The leading scorers today were senior Ae’Rianna Harris, who scored 15 points on 6-14 shooting, and sophomore Cassidy Hardin, who scored 8 points on 3-5 shooting from the field.

Aside from Harris and Hardin, Purdue was held in check, especially the trio of Karissa McLaughlin, Dominique Oden and Kayana Traylor who combined to shoot just 7-23 from the floor.

Along with the poor shooting, the Boilers turned the ball over 21 times in what was a huge part why Purdue was unable to pull out the victory. Turnovers have been an issue this season as the team has averaged around 17 per game.

Indiana was led by Ali Patberg with 18 points on 7-10 shooting and Aleksa Gulbe who added 10 points to go along with 8 rebounds. The Hoosiers have now won 4 in a row to start Big Ten play 4-0 and are in sole possession of first place in the conference.

Purdue has now lost back to back games to Rutgers and Indiana to fall to 11-5 on the season and 2-2 during Big Ten play. The Boilermakers will regroup and reset before taking on a 12-2 Northwestern team in Evanston on Sunday. The Wildcats are 2-1 in the Big Ten which places them tied for second in the league.