Purdue overcomes generous start to run away from Eastern Illinois

WEST LAFAYETTE — Purdue basketball was late waking up for its noon tipoff at Mackey Arena on Friday.

Once the Boilermakers did, they transformed back into the nation's top-ranked team.

The Boilermakers buried an inferior Eastern Illinois squad by halftime and closed out the Panthers 109-62.

Six Purdue players scored in double figures, led by Daniel Jacobsen's career-high 24, and eight had at least 8 points.

Purdue basketball turnover issue vs Eastern Illinois leads to slow start

Eastern Illinois took advantage of nine early Purdue turnovers and found itself even at 19 points apiece midway through the first half. Nursing a 23-21 lead, the Boilermakers went on a 16-2 run over a span of 3 minutes, 52 seconds.

Purdue ended up outscoring the Panthers 34-9 over the final 10:56 of the half. Fletcher Loyer scored 9 points and Jacobsen 7 during that stretch.

How many assists did Braden Smith have vs Eastern Illinois

Braden Smith had 10 assists against Eastern Illinois. After getting four in the first half, Smith collected six in 7:32 of the second half. With Purdue well ahead and the outcome all but determined, Smith watched the rest of the game, reaching double digit assists in just 23 minutes.

Smith now has 821 career assists, passing former Michigan State guard Mateen Cleaves for second most in Big Ten history. Smith needs 255 to tie former Duke guard Bobby Hurley's NCAA record of 1,076.

3 stars for Purdue basketball vs Eastern Illinois

Fletcher Loyer: Talk about efficiency, Loyer needed just four field goal attempts to score 15 points. Loyer was 4 of 4 from 3 and 3 for 3 from the free throw line. Loyer also had five rebounds, three assists and a steal.

Daniel Jacobsen: In his college debut, Jacobsen scored 13 points last season versus Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Jacobsen fractured his tibia one minute into the next game. Thirteen points remained his career high until Friday afternoon. The 7-foot-4 sophomore was dominant with 24 points, 9 rebounds and 6 blocks.

Omer Mayer: Realistically, you could put a lot of players here. But Omer Mayer just keeps getting better each time out. While Purdue had turnover woes, Mayer played a clean game until the waning minutes, aside from a missed fast break dunk (which he atoned for later). Mayer scored 10 points to go with three assists.

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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Purdue basketball score today vs Eastern Illinois, game stats, turnovers