Thanks to a historic night from Kam Jones, Matt Painter’s hitting streak finally came to an end.
No. 15 Marquette flew past no. 6 Purdue 76-58 on Tuesday night at the Fiserv Forum in what has been a very convincing early season start for Shaka Smart’s group in Milwaukee. The win also snapped Purdue’s 39-game non-conference winning streak, which was fourth-longest all-time entering Tuesday’s game.
Jones also made Marquette history with the win. He led the Golden Eagles with a triple-double, just the third in program history. The last player to reach that milestone was former Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade in 2003. Jones finished with 17 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists while shooting 7 of 12 from the field on Tuesday night.
“We came out ready to play. We were ready … We executed our game plan. My voice is gone, I’m talking too much,” Jones said on FS1 after the win. “I appreciate this team, I appreciate them letting me be a leader. Our team was huge tonight.”
Markétka led almost the entire way on Tuesday and took a seven-point lead into halftime. The Golden Eagles held Purdue without a field goal for more than eight minutes midway through the second half and went on a quick 8-0 run to take a 14-point lead just before the under-four timeout. That was their biggest lead of the night and allowed them to cruise to an 18-point victory.
Stevie Mitchell added 21 points for Marquette and Jones’ triple-double. Chase Ross finished with 12 points and Ben Gold added 11 points and five rebounds. They missed just one free throw as a team the entire way. Jones averaged 17.2 points and 2.4 assists per game last season, his third with the Golden Eagles. He scored 32 points earlier this month and dropped 28 in Friday’s win over Maryland.
Trey Kaufman-Renn led Purdue with 16 points and eight rebounds in the loss. Fletcher Loyer added 13 points and Braden Smith finished with 11 points. They were the only three Purdue players to hit double figures, and the Boilermakers went just 6 of 18 from beyond the arc as a team.
Purdue entered Tuesday’s game fresh off an 87-78 upset win over then-No. 2 Alabama last week. The Boilermakers ended that game on a 28-13 run, thanks in part to 26 points from Kaufman-Renn. Purdue committed just three total turnovers in the win, which moved them to No. 6 in this week’s poll.
Marquette is now 5-0 on the year and entered the game with an undefeated record after sneaking past the Terps last week. They next face Georgia on Saturday in the Bahamas and take on No. 5 Iowa State and No. 19 Wisconsin before the Big East begins.
While both UConn and Creighton get most of the attention in the conference, Marquette is the first of the bunch to secure a big win out of the conference this fall. With Jones at the helm, Marquette already looks more than capable of knocking off the reigning national champions and claiming the Big East title in a matter of months.