Nebraska men’s basketball was derailed from start to finish in a 104-68 loss at No. 20 Purdue Sunday in West Lafayette, Ind. The Huskers (12-3, 2-3 B1G) held the lead for all of 17 seconds, and never again after the 18:29 mark of the first half. A 14-0 run by the Boilermakers (13-4, 5-1 B1G) opened a 24-7 lead with 11:10 to go until halftime. Nebraska sputtered to a 2-for-11 start behind the arc in the first half, while Purdue drained 8-of-13 three-pointers in the first 20 minutes.
The Boilermakers went on to knock down 19 three-pointers, a Nebraska opponent record and one off of the Big Ten record for threes in a game set by Purdue last year with 20. The Boilermakers outrebounded the Cornhuskers, 33-20, forced 17 turnovers while committing just 10 and shot a robust 62.2 percent from the field for the game.
Purdue led by as many as 22 and never looked back while throttling the Huskers. C.J. Cox led the Boilers in scoring with 23 points on 9-for-11 shooting, including 5-for-7 from behind the arc. Fletcher Loyer added 19 points including five three-pointers. Trey Baumann-Renn was 7-for-9 shooting while tallying 15 points, while Myles Colvin scored 14 points. 13 different Purdue players scored at least one point, including Elkhorn North graduate Jack Lusk, who notched two points.
Nebraska was led by Connor Essegian, who paced the Huskers from the bench with 17 points. Juwan Gary was the only other Husker in double figures with 10 points, but was 0-for-5 from three-point range.
After losing back-to-back games, Nebraska will look to rebound Thursday night at home against Rutgers. Pregame coverage begins at 7 p.m., with tipoff at 8 p.m. on KLIN.