Purdue WBB: Boilers 79, Bowling Green 73

Purdue moved to 2-0 this week after back to back wins against Buffalo on Wednesday and now another win over Bowling Green today by a score of 79-73.

The Boilermakers picked up right where they left off in their last contest beginning the game on a 16-4 run led by Brooke Moore and Ra’Shaya Kyle. Bowling Green cut the lead down to 6 on three separate occasions, but the Boilermakers had an answer each time to hold off the Falcons.

Bowling Green came into today’s game boasting a 4-0 record with wins over Valparaiso, Northern Kentucky, Milwaukee and Eastern Michigan. Purdue had previously lost to Valparaiso in their second game this season, but asserted their dominance today.

The real weak spot at least statistically this season for Purdue has been turnovers where they coughed it up 26 times against Buffalo and 18 in the game before that against Valparaiso.

Purdue improved on that mark today turning the ball over 14 times. They complemented sound ball security by shooting extremely well in the first half to carry an 11 point advantage into the break and did not let off the gas to begin the second half.

Bowling Green mounted a come back at the end of the third quarter into the fourth as the Falcons went on an 11-0 run to close the gap to just two to make the score 60-62 with 6:14 left in the game.

Brooke Moore led the Boilermakers with a career high 25 points on 6-12 shooting from the floor including four three point field goals and 9 assists. Moore has proven to be the go to option for Sharon Versyp, scoring 20 plus points in the last two games both of which Purdue has won.

The freshmen duo of Madison Layden and Ra’Shaya Kyle both played excellent games today to help Purdue to the win. Kyle played only 13 minutes but scored 8 points and grabbing 7 rebounds. Layden had her best performance of her young Boilermaker career as she hit three, three pointers on her way to scoring 13 points and giving out 4 assists.

The two leading upperclassmen for the Boilermakers Kayana Traylor and Tamara Farquhar also had solid games and helped Purdue weather the storm in the second half. Farquhar scored 13 points and snatched 8 rebounds, she will continue to be the “glue-girl” for this team as she can do a little bit of everything.

Traylor did not have her best shooting performance going just 3-9 from the field but did add 5 rebounds and assists apiece. Traylor was the primary ball handler down the stretch which shows you who Sharon Versyp trusts in tense situations.

Purdue shot it well again as a team, shooting 49% (26-53) from the field and hitting 9 out of 20 three point field goal attempts. In their lone loss of the season, they were unable to make any three’s on 15 tries, which now seems like an anomaly.

This wraps up the non-conference slate for Purdue as they sit at 3-1 so far on the early season heading into Big Ten play. Their first game of the Big Ten schedule is a tough one against #17 ranked Northwestern inside Mackey Arena this coming Thursday. Northwestern has only played one game so far but will face-off against Minnesota before making the trip to West Lafayette.