No. 20 Iowa holds off Purdue
IOWA CITY, Iowa - Roy Devyn Marble scored 21 points and No. 20 Iowa snapped a three-game losing streak by beating Purdue 83-76 on Sunday.
Aaron White and Mike Gesell added 15 points each for the Hawkeyes (20-9, 9-7 Big Ten), who have recorded consecutive 20-win seasons for the first time in eight years.
Iowa blew a 13-point halftime lead, but an 8-0 run put the Hawkeyes back ahead 68-64 with 5:56 left. Gesell then hit five free throws in the final 41 seconds to help the Hawkeyes narrowly avoid losing their fourth home game in five tries.
Rapheal Davis scored a career-high 18 points and A.J. Hammons had 16 points with 14 rebounds for Purdue (15-14, 5-11), which is on its second four-game losing streak in conference play.
The Hawkeyes closed the first half on a 15-5 run and appeared to be just a few plays away from burying the Boilermakers.
Purdue responded with a spurt that threatened to send Iowa tumbling to its fourth straight loss.
The Boilermakers outscored Iowa 27-10 to open the second half, as the Hawkeyes again suffered through the defensive woes that marked road losses at Minnesota and Indiana.
White steadied Iowa with a rare 3-pointer and two free throws, and the Hawkeyes held Purdue without a point for over 6 minutes in building a 68-64 lead. Marble then attacked Hammons in the paint for a crucial three-point play toward the end of the shot clock that gave Iowa a 75-70 lead with 2:39 to go.
Josh Oglesby had 11 points for the Hawkeyes and Marble added five assists and four steals.
Sunday's game capped a stretch of four games in eight days for the Hawkeyes, who followed a scheduled bye week with another game forced upon them by a postponement at Indiana.
Iowa didn't exactly respond well to its scheduling adversity.
The Hawkeyes lost 79-74 at home to Wisconsin before the defeats against the Gophers and Hoosiers - who are both below .500 in the Big Ten.
Purdue was coming off a brutal overtime loss to league-leading Michigan, as Glenn Robinson III banked in the game-winner at the buzzer in West Lafayette that denied the Boilermakers a signature win.
Both teams looked like they were worn out early.
Iowa missed nine of its first 11 shots, and the Boilermakers made just one of six 3-point attempts to open play. But the Hawkeyes got a boost from their bench, which scored 15 points in the first half, and Marble followed a fadeaway 3 with a layup to help put Iowa ahead 50-37.
The Boilermakers needed less than 5 minutes to get the deficit down to 52-49 - a run that sandwiched a stern tongue lashing from coach Fran McCaffery to the Hawkeyes - and a 3 by Kendall Stephens tied it at 60 with 12:25 left.
Stephens and Errick Peck had 12 points each for Purdue, which committed 16 turnovers.