#15 Purdue 90, Morehead State 56

After a poor offensive performance at Louisville earlier this week, Purdue came out of the locker room running, quickly getting the bad taste of an ugly loss out of their mouth. After a 15-0 run early on, Morehead State was able to cut the lead a few times, but Purdue was able to keep their distance thanks to 11 3-pointers in the first half. Early on, it looked like Purdue could top the school record of 18 3’s in a game, but instead finished with only 15 (#FirePainter /s).

Now time for some Fast Break Points:

• Carsen *The Truth* Edwards earned his first start of the reason, replacing Vincent Edwards, and scored 16 points with 4 3’s. At this rate, Carsen won’t be much of a secret weapon when we get to conference play, but I think that’s okay. Carsen did miss a few baskets and had 2 turnovers, but that’s because he knows we can’t handle The Truth.
• Caleb Swanigan finished with 13 points but 9 rebounds, ending his 5 game double-double streak. It looked like he would get another double-double, but both Purdue and Morehead State made a few baskets towards the end of his time on the court to prevent his 10th rebound. Biggie is still a beast, however.
• Mathias, Thompson, and Cline combined for 10 of Purdue’s 15 3-pointers this afternoon. The consistency of this trio, along with Carsen and Spike, will make Purdue’s backcourt much more dangerous this season compared to last season. I wouldn’t expect Purdue to get 15+ 3-pointers each game, but they have shown this might not be a fluke.
• After committing 17 turnovers on Wednesday, as well as averaging 16 turnovers/game coming into this afternoon, Purdue only committed 9 turnovers today. While they did commit a flurry of TOs early on (5 if I recall correctly), Purdue quickly cleaned up their ball moved much more efficiently.
• Vincent is still struggling this season, though he did get 7 points (6 in the 2nd half) coming off the bench. While he is not producing the points we expected coming into this season, he did get 8 assists today, matching his season high against Villanova. But we’re still hoping to #MakeVincentVinceAgain
• Morehead State attempted 0 free throws. Yes, you read that correctly. I’m not sure if this has ever happened, but I wouldn’t mind continuing this streak.
• Still trying to figure out why the Morehead State cheerleaders were at Mackey. It looks like the Purdue Cheer Squad invited them. It’s still weird to see outside of a tournament game (though I have seen this done in some rivalry games).
• Morehead still isn’t a state

Overall, it was a good game for Purdue. While Morehead State isn’t a good team, it felt good to see Purdue have some offensive rhythm after this offensive poop show on Wednesday against Louisville. Up next for Purdue is Arizona State in New York City for the Jimmy V Classic.