Box Score

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Eastern Kentucky University lost at No. 1 Purdue, 80-53, on Friday at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette.
 
EKU will return home to host Lipscomb and Austin Peay next week for the first conference games of the season.  Thursday's match-up with Lipscomb is set for 7 p.m.
 
Devontae Blanton led EKU with 14 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the field.  He also had four rebounds and three assists.  Isaiah Cozart finished with eight points, five rebounds and three blocks.
 
The Colonels (4-9) grabbed an early 2-1 lead on a jumper from Blanton.  EKU tied it up, 8-8, when Cozart hit a hook shot over 7-foot-4 defending national player of the year Zach Edey.
 
The top ranked Boilermakers answered with a 16-3 run.  Lance Jones finished off the spurt with a lay-up at the 8:58 mark to make it 24-11.  Michael Moreno stopped the Purdue run with a 3-pointer from the left wing to get EKU within 10, but that is as close as the visitors would get.
 
Purdue followed Moreno's three with another run, this time out-scoring the Colonels 12-4.  Braden Smith's 3-pointer finished off the run and pushed the home team out in front by 18, 36-18, with 3:14 left in the first half.  The Boilermakers led by 19 at the break, 43-24.
 
EKU shot 37 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes while Purdue made 57 percent of its shots.
 
The Boilermakers (12-1) scored the first five points of the second half, and nine of the first 11, to put the game away.
 
Purdue shot 52 percent from the field for the game and out-rebounded the Colonels by 21, 46-25.  After holding Edey to three points in the first half, the senior center scored 10 in the second half, finishing with 13 points, seven rebounds and two blocks.  Loyer scored 14.