Wildcats take advantage of Purdue foul trouble, youth
When the Boilermakers’ inside game went away due to foul trouble Saturday afternoon, so did their offense.
And Northwestern took advantage, going on a 19-7 run in the second quarter to turn a one-point lead into 13 at the half, and the Boilermakers never recovered. Purdue, which lost 76-60 in its Big Ten opener in Evanston, was without injured Nora Kiesler, compounding its foul trouble; by early in the second quarter, Ae’Rianna Harris had three fouls while Dominique McBryde had two.
“We have no post players, with Bree (Horrocks) and Nora out,” Versyp said during her post-game radio interview. “And then with Ae’Rianna and Dom out. Bridget (Perry) isn’t a post player, so we weren’t able to go inside and exploit inside, because that’s what we were doing early with Dom. So we didn’t have an inside game and our outside shots weren’t falling. That was what happened in the second quarter.”
The Boilermakers (9-6 overall, 0-1 in the Big Ten) hit only three of their 12 shots in the second, after they had played close in the first, trailing only by one. Meanwhile, the Wildcats (13-2, 2-0) scored 19 in the second, then had 23 in the third, when they made 10 of their 16 shot attempts.
“When you’re undersized, they went big and went after us,” Versyp said. “But it’s Big Ten. We played four freshmen today, but we’ve got to learn and keep getting better.”
Andreona Keys scored a team-high 16 for the Boilermakers, joined in double-figures by Perry (12) and McBryde (11). But Purdue shot only 40.4 percent, hitting 2-of-12 from three-point range. Ashley Morrissette scored eight points but had six of Purdue’s 20 turnovers.
“Ashley has to play better for us, offensively and defensively,” Versyp said.
Forward Nia Coffey scored 19 points for NU, with Lauren Douglas having 18, Christen Inman 16 and Ashley Deary 13. The Wildcats shot almost 47 percent, being undone at times by their turnovers; they finished with 18.
Purdue, which has lost two straight, returns to Mackey Arena for two games this week, starting with Michigan State on Wednesday.
“We pushed, we played hard, we did everything we possibly could,” Versyp said. “But Northwestern is a really tough team.
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