Oscar Cluff’s 15 points led seven players in double figures for No. 1 Purdue in an 86-56 romp past No. 15 Texas Tech in the title game of the Baha Mar Championship on Friday night at Nassau, Bahamas.
Trey Kaufman-Renn posted 12 points, reserves Omer Mayer and Daniel Jacobsen each scored 11, and C.J. Cox, Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer all checked in with 10 points. Cluff, a transfer from South Dakota State who led the team in scoring for the first time, also had 15 rebounds.
JT Toppin scored 15 points and Christian Anderson notched 13 points for Texas Tech (4-2), which didn’t reach the 50-point mark until the final 70 seconds. Toppin also had eight rebounds.
The Red Raiders shot 33.3% from the field, including 8-for-34 on 3-point launches. Despite so many missed shots, Texas Tech collected only nine offensive rebounds.
The Boilermakers (6-0) didn’t experience many of the glitches that came a day earlier when they had to overcome Memphis down the stretch.
Purdue’s offense clicked with a variety of high-percentage shots. Cluff was 6-for-8 from the field and Kaufman-Renn went 6-for-9 from the floor. Five of the Boilermakers connected on at least one 3-point shot.
After holding a 49-26 halftime lead, the Boilermakers rattled off the first eight points of the second half. Texas Tech didn’t score for the first 5 1/2 minutes of the second half until Toppin’s tip-in.
Shortly after that, the Red Raiders had another span of nearly two minutes without scoring.
Texas Tech had a late rally to knock off Wake Forest on Thursday, but the Red Raiders weren’t close enough to think about pulling off another victory on this trip.
Purdue led 26-23 with seven minutes to play in the first half. But the rest of the half, Texas Tech had only Anderson’s 3-point basket in the last minute of play.
The final score was Purdue’s second-largest margin this season, behind only an 82-51 pounding of Evansville in the opener.
–Field Level Media
