AUBURN, Ala. – Kevin Overton scored a game-high 22 points to lead No. 21 Auburn but high-powered No. 6 Purdue displayed its offensive wizardry to beat the Tigers 88-60 Saturday in the Indy Classic at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
“Our guys battled, our effort was there,” Auburn coach Steven Pearl said. “We needed some more step-up from a few guys. (Overton) stepped up, took some really hard coaching this week and he responded. He flew around, played really hard. That’s a really good team in a tough environment. For us to be competitive in these games we’ve got to make shots and we didn’t do that tonight.”
Overton made 4 of 11 3-point attempts and led Auburn with five rebounds.
“We’re young,” Overton said. “We’re learning how to be in these games, how to compete on a consistent level. We took strides, especially defensively, our approach in practice. All of those things are coming together. We’ve got to stay with it.”
Keyshawn Hall also reached double figures for Auburn, scoring 14 points.
Trey Kaufman-Renn paced five Boilermakers in double figures with 18 points on 9-for-13 shooting.
The bigger Boilermakers outscored Auburn 40-20 in points in the paint and enjoyed a 14-4 advantage in points off turnovers despite committing one more (11-10) than Auburn.
Auburn grabbed two more offensive rebounds than Purdue (11-9) but the Boilermakers were more opportunistic with their second chances, outscoring the Tigers 15-5 in that category.
After Hall hit an early 3-pointer, KeShawn Murphy made a pair of jumpers to give Auburn a one-point lead, but the Tigers led for only one minute and 13 seconds before C.J. Cox made back-to-back 3-pointers to put Purdue in front to stay.
Trailing by 14 at the half, Auburn would get no closer in the second half. The Tigers went cold down the stretch during an 11-0 run that put the Boilermakers ahead by 29.
Purdue made its final five shots of the game while the Tigers missed 10 of their last 11. The Boilermakers outrebounded Auburn 36-25.
All-American point guard Braden Smith had a season-high 14 assists for Purdue (11-1).
The Tigers held Purdue sharpshooter Fletcher Loyer, a 46.4-percent 3-point shooter, to 0-for-7 from deep, but the rest of the Boilermakers made up for it by combining to make 12 of 19 3-point attempts, a 63.1-percent clip.
“We’ve played seven games against high-major opponents,” Pearl said. “We go 3-4 in those games. We’ve played 12 games so far, we’ve played seven games away from home in neutrals or road environments. There aren’t 10 teams who have a better record than us with the schedule we’ve played. Maybe five, in my opinion, based on what I’ve seen in the landscape.”
Auburn (8-4) returns to Neville Arena on Monday, Dec. 29, for its nonconference finale, hosting Queens at 9 p.m. CT.
“Our guys haven’t lost confidence. They’re still bought in to what we do, which is really important,” said Pearl, whose team’s four losses are to top 10 opponents in No. 1 Arizona, No. 2 Michigan, No. 6 Purdue and No. 8 Arizona. “We may not play four better teams the rest of the year and the SEC’s really good this year. We’ve played four Final Four teams so far. We’ve got to be more competitive in these games. We can’t get blown out like this.
“We’re battled tested. I think we have a top 25 resume based on what we’ve already done. As long as we continue to get better like we did last week, we’ll be fine.”
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on X: @jeff_shearer