After losing star small forward Robbie Hummel after the 2011-12 season, the Purdue Boilermakers have been searching for a new identity. After missing the NCAA tournament for two season in a row, Matt Painter's squad finally may have the golden ticket. Today in West Lafayette, the Boilers used their balanced attack and size to defeat the #25 Iowa Hawkeyes to advance to 12-8 on the season.

Raphael Davis came alive during this game, as the guard that had been averaging 9.5 points a game roared for 24 points on the evening, giving Purdue the offensive output they needed while leading scorer Kendall Stephens struggled mightily battling a hand injury. The Boilermakers led for most of the game, but Mike Gesell wouldn't have any of that. He led a charge in which he scored 12 points in 4 minutes to put the Hawkeyes in from by 1 with just over a minute left. However, Davis, with his ice-cold blood, shot a huge three-pointer with 50 seconds left to help Purdue re-gain the lead, an advantage they wouldn't relinquish the rest of the game, winning 67-63.

Other than Davis, Purdue was led today by a very balanced attack from their bigs. The Boilers have a unique advantage of having 2 talented 7 foot centers on the team, and both AJ Hammons and Isaac Haas scored in double figures. Along with those two, Basil Smotherman came off of the bench to give his team a huge spark, getting in the paint and scoring 13 points while garnering 6 rebounds and 2 blocks. These 3 down low got the vast majority of Purdue's offensive sets other than those in which Raphael Davis took over in the backcourt, creating a massive workload for Adam Woodbury and Gabriel Olaseni under the basket. Olaseni did grab 11 offensive rebounds, getting a whopping total of 16 rebounds on the day. However, he was poor overall on offense, going 2-10 shooting. Woodbury also didn't supply much offense, fouling out with 7 points in 17 minutes.

Aaron White, Iowa's best player, was out for most of the game after suffering a stinger after 7 minutes of court-action. This hindered the Hawkeyes' gameplan drastically. If it wasn't for Mike Gesell, who scored 18 points in the game, Iowa would have been blown out. White will likely be back for Iowa in their next game.

With this win, Purdue has a quality win over a talented opponent, giving them some hope for an NCAA tournament bid. They still have work to do, and their next game is at home on Wednesday against the high-flying Indiana Hoosiers. Iowa will try to rebound after a poor week when they invite Wisconsin to Carver-Hawkeye Arena next Saturday.

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About the author
Ben Anderson
Hi, folks. I am Ben, a West Virginian, loud and proud. I've been the editor in chief of VAVEL USA since December of 2013, and continue to work hard and make the International Sports Newspaper the best on the internet.