Women’s Basketball: Purdue Takes Down Rutgers 68-54

Purdue wasn’t going to let the IU loss bring them down as the went on the road and defeated Rutgers 68-54. The Boilers have now won 4 of their last 5 games and are on a 4 game road-win streak. The Boilers dominated the boards out-rebounding the Scarlet Knights 40-32. They racked up 20 assists, 7 blocks and 7 steals while shooting 46% from the field.

Purdue rallied out ahead to start the game with an early 6-2 lead. They then went on a 12-0 run in the middle of the first to take a commanding 18-3 lead. Rutgers was fouled and hit two free throws followed up by a layup to stop the bleeding and bring the score 18-7 to end the quarter.

The two teams traded off scoring to start the second quarter and a Rutgers 3 brought them within 9 before Hardin hit another shot from behind the arc to take it back to 12. Purdue went into the half with a 36-23 lead.

The Boilers came out in the second half and hit two back to back threes to extend the lead to 19. Rutgers did rally back in the fourth and come within 9 but Purdue had a response every time they tried to chip away the lead. The Purdue defense held Rutgers to under 40% shooting and forced 12 turnovers.

“Go Big or Go Home” well for Lasha Petree she decided to go big while she was home. The Rutgers transfer dropped 17 on her Alma Mater including a trio of 3’s to lead all scorers of the game. Cassidy Hardin finished with 12 points and hit 4/7 from deep. She became the fifth Boilermaker to make a career 200 3-pointers.

Jeanae Terry did a little bit of everything finishing the game with 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 points. This is the 15th game this season where she finished with at least 5 rebounds and 5 assists.

Purdue is back in Mackey on Sunday to face off against Northwestern. The Wildcats are currently last in with the B1G with a 1/12 conference record. Tip is set for 2 pm.