Fletcher Loyer scored a career-high 30 points Tuesday night and Braden Smith moved into third place in Big Ten Conference history for most assists as top-ranked Purdue opened its season by walloping visiting Evansville 82-51 in West Lafayette, Ind.
Jack Benter added 11 and three 3-pointers for the Boilermakers, who sank 13 of 29 3-pointers as a team. That included a 7 of 10 performance from Loyer as he took up slack for the absence of last season’s leading scorer, Trey Kaufman-Renn. He sat out with a hip injury.
Joshua Hughes scored 15 points and Saint Louis transfer AJ Casey added 14 to pace the Purple Aces, who played without their top returning scorer as well. Forward Connor Turnbull, last season’s Missouri Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Year, sat out with an undisclosed injury.
Even had Turnbull played, it might not have impacted the outcome. Evansville managed to make only 21 of 70 field goal attempts against Purdue’s typically physical defense and connected on a measly 7 of 34 from the 3-point line.
Smith dished out 11 assists, passing Illinois’ Bruce Douglas with his 766th career helper when Oscar Cluff converted a jump hook for the first bucket of the second half. That was part of a 12-0 run that boosted the Boilermakers’ cushion to an insurmountable 53-22.
The absence of Kaufman-Renn, who was hurt in practice last week, ended two notable streaks. He started the team’s previous 75 games and appeared in 110 consecutive contests. It might have affected Purdue early as the short-handed Aces were able to hang with it for about 15 minutes.
A 3-pointer by Trent Hundley with 7:49 remaining in the first half enabled Evansville to close within 20-17. But the Boilermakers answered with a game-breaking 16-2 run over the next five minutes, Loyer capping it with a 3-pointer that upped the margin to 17.
Daniel Jacobsen, a 7-4 reserve center, added 11 points and eight rebounds for Purdue.
