Carsen Edwards scores 23, No. 14 Purdue shakes off Illinois 73-56
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) — Carsen Edwards broke out of a shooting slump to score 23 points, and No. 14 Purdue got its fourth straight victory, 73-56 over Illinois on Wednesday night.
Edwards went 8 of 14 from the field for the Boilermakers (21-7, 14-3 Big Ten), who moved into a tie atop the conference with No. 6 Michigan State. The All-American guard made 7 of his 40 attempts in the previous two games.
Matt Haarms had 21 points on 8-of-8 shooting, 10 rebounds and five blocks for Purdue.
Ayo Dosunu and Andres Feliz led cold-shooting Illinois (10-18, 6-11) with nine points apiece. Illinois shot 32.8 percent overall and 27.6 percent from 3-point range.
Illinois led the back-and-forth game 33-32 at halftime and rallied to tie it at 48 with 9:43 remaining. Then Edwards and Haarms took over as the Boilermakers scored 12 straight points. Illinois got no closer than nine points the rest of the way.
The Boilermakers held a 36-27 advantage on the boards.
BIG PICTURE
Illinois showed some depth, with 26 bench points to Purdue’s two, but still lost its third straight, squandering a chance to earn a signature win.
Purdue remains in the hunt for its 24th Big Ten championship.
UP NEXT
Illinois hosts Northwestern on Sunday.
Purdue hosts Ohio State on Saturday.