IOWA CITY, Iowa – The University of Iowa men's basketball team mounted a late comeback against No. 2 Purdue on Friday night before falling 77-70 in his first Big Ten Conference game at Mackey Arena. The Hawkeyes played without the Big Ten leading scorer, Keegan Murray, who missed the game due to injury.
Iowa (7-1) refused to back down, eventually cutting a 19-point deficit in the second half to two points with 2:40 left in regulation.
Purdue led 39-26 at halftime, while sophomore Tony Perkins led the offense with 12 of his 14 total game points. The Boilermakers used an 11-1 run in just over two minutes to open a 63-44 lead with 9:54 remaining.
There was no resignation from the Hawkeyes as Iowa exploded on a 24-7 streak of its own, capped by a second-year Kris Murray 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 70-68 with 3:08 to play.
The Boilermakers pushed the lead to four points before a jumper from junior Joe Toussaint made it 72-70 with 2:32 left. However, it would be the final score of the night for Iowa, as the Hawkeyes failed to convert in their last seven field goal attempts of the contest.
Redshirt sophomore Patrick McCaffery finished as Iowa's top scorer with 15 points. McCaffery drained 7 of 10 free throws and equaled Hawkeye's best five rebounds for the contest.
Sophomore Josh Ogundele also grabbed five boards and scored seven points on 3 of 4 shots from the field. Each of those figures was Ogundele, the best of his career, who saw a surge in action at times for Keegan Murray; his 16 minutes were the season-high, up from a previous seven-minute high against Alabama state.
Perkins added two rebounds, two steals and an assist to match his 14 points. Kris Murray finished with 12 points, two rebounds and one steal, while Toussaint had seven points on 3 of 4 shots, four assists, two rebounds and one steal.
Iowa forced 17 turnovers, including six steals while shooting 40 percent from the field on the other side of the field. The Hawkeyes made 15 of 21 free throws (68 percent), while they shot 5 of 21 (24 percent) from 3-point range.
QUOTATION COACH MCCAFFERY
“I think Purdue deserves to be number 1. They can hurt you in a number of ways. It will be a difficult team to beat.
“We continue to believe in each other and we continue to execute. The press was very helpful. We always want to have an aggressive mentality. ”
OF NOTE
- Iowa was without the nation's second leading scorer, Keegan Murray (24.6 points per game), tonight. The second-year forward suffered a right ankle injury in the final minutes of Monday night's victory at Virginia.
- Indianapolis native Tony Perkins scored 12 of his 14 points in the first half. The second-year guard has reached double figures by scoring four of the last six contests.
- Patrick McCaffery scored 12 of his team's 15 points in the second half. The red-shirted sophomore has scored in double figures in all but one game this season.
- Sophomore Josh Ogundele played 16 minutes, his best of the season, and posted career-best marks in scoring (7) and rebounding (5).
- Kris Murray started his first college game in place of his brother, Keegan. Kris finished the contest with 12 points.
- The Hawkeyes had a game-best 11-0 scoring streak in the second half. Iowa has had scoring runs of 10-0 or more 11 combined times in eight games.
NEXT
Iowa (7-1, 0-1) will return home Monday to host Illinois (6-2, 1-0) in the first game at home of the US conference. Hawkeyes. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. (CT) at Mediacom Court in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Tickets are available for purchase at hawkeyesports.com/tickets .
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