Women’s Basketball: Rutgers 75, Purdue 57

Another day, another bad loss for Sharon Versyp and the Purdue Boilermakers as they fall 75-57 at home against Rutgers.

This team is just broken, there is no other way around it. Their losing streak has hit 5 games and have just one win in 10 games since the calendar turned to 2021. As I have written multiple times before, Purdue’s season just keeps going down further into a hole.

Purdue has had a consistent theme of playing fairly well in the first half of games before allowing teams to go on large runs to get down by double figures and today was no different. The Scarlett Knights had a 34-31 advantage heading into halftime, then Purdue was just flat out bad in the first few minutes of the third quarter. This allowed Rutgers to go on a 13-0 run and open up a 16 point lead.

This game was all but over at that point, with Rutgers ending up dominating Purdue on their own floor for an 18 point win.

Arella Guirantes absolutely torched the Boilermakers on her way to dropping 30 points on 11-18 shooting from the field. She also swatted away 5 shots, showing just how little Purdue’s playmakers could do offensively.

Kayana Traylor and Brooke Moore were the only two “bright spots” if you will for Purdue this afternoon. Traylor posted a line of 13 points and 5 assists, while Moore struggled a bit inside the arc but ended with a team high 17 points and connected on 5-8 three point attempts.

It feels like for Purdue to win, almost everyone needs to be on their A-game, which is highly unlikely even for some of the best teams in the country. There has been nobody the Boilermakers could lean on when the going gets tough. This inconsistent play from everyone on the team is a large reason why they are 6-11 this year.

The tipping point for Purdue fans of the year was losing to Illinois who is in last place in the conference, since that game the Boilermakers have lost back to back games by a combined 31 points.

There are only four games left until the end of the regular season, which could be a reason why Mike Bobinski hasn’t booted Versyp out the door just yet. It’s not going to get any easier for the team down the stretch as they will be playing two teams that ranked in the Top 12 of the country along with an 11-5 Michigan State squad before wrapping things up against Illinois at home.

The end of the Versyp era will be coming soon enough Boilermaker fans.