Box Score PISCATAWAY, N.J. - The No. 1 Purdue Boilermakers proved to be too much to handle for the Rutgers men's basketball team on Tuesday night at Jersey Mike's Arena.

Top-ranked Purdue used a dominant first-half surge and a 25-point second-half lead to hand Rutgers an 81–65 loss Monday night at Jersey Mike's Arena in the Big Ten opener.

Trey Kaufman-Renn powered the Boilermakers with 19 points and 13 rebounds, while Braden Smith added 16 points and eight assists as Purdue (8–0, 1–0 Big Ten) controlled the game for nearly the full 40 minutes. The Boilermakers shot 46.6 percent from the field and finished 17-for-20 at the free throw line.

Rutgers (5–4, 0–1 Big Ten) fell behind 40–27 at halftime and saw the deficit balloon to 25 early in the second half. The Scarlet Knights fought back behind a strong bench showing, led by freshman Harun Zrno, who scored 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including three 3-pointers. Dylan Grant added 13 points and Kaden Powers chipped in five.

Jamichael Davis was the most efficient starter for Rutgers, posting nine points and five assists, while Dylan Grant closed with 13 points and a team-high three steals.

Purdue's balance proved overwhelming. The Boilermakers hit 10 3-pointers, won the rebounding battle 36–25, and turned 14 Rutgers turnovers into 12 points. They also outscored Rutgers 30–24 in the paint and 14–7 in fast-break points.

Rutgers opened with an early 6–2 lead, but Purdue responded with a 10–0 run and never trailed again. Smith's shooting and Kaufman-Renn's presence around the rim allowed the Boilermakers to maintain a double-digit cushion for most of the night.

Rutgers' bench produced 28 points, highlighted by Zrno's best performance of the season, but the Scarlet Knights were unable to cut the deficit to single digits in the second half.

Postgame Notes

• Darren Buchanan Jr. made his first start as a Scarlet Knight
• Freshman Kaden Powers scored his first collegiate field goal and had a career-high in points
• Dylan Grant has scored double-digits in eight of nine games this year
• Harun Zrno reached double-digits for the second time this season after previously scoring 14 points vs. Tennessee. He scored all his points in the second half.
• Rutgers had 10 players play at least 12 minutes.

Up Next
After facing No. 1 Purdue, Saturday RU plays at Michigan, who is ranked No. 2 in the Coaches Poll and No. 3 in the AP Poll. This represents the toughest back-to-back games based on opponent rankings for Rutgers since the 2008-09 season, when Rutgers played at No. 1 UNC on December 28, then faced No. 3 Pittsburgh on December 31.

Rutgers Coach Steve Pikiell Postgame Transcript
Opening Statement
"Thank you guys for being here as always. Always appreciate you showing up for us. Obviously, when you are playing the number one team in America, you have to play better than that. Harun [Zrno] was terrific in the second half, which helped us a great deal. J-Mike [Jamichael Davis] always plays hard, but when you make a mistake against a really good Purdue team, they make you pay.
"Matt Painter does a great job with them; the point guard [Braden Smith] is just elite. Honestly, the backboards — we have to figure out the backboards because you cannot beat the number one team in America when you spot them plus eleven on the glass. It does not get any easier in this league. Michigan is as good as any team in the country, and they are another excellent rebounding team that is up next for us, so we have to focus ahead." On Playing the Freshmen Extended Minutes in the Second Half
"Mostly energy, and I was really trying to find some rebounders too. We did not do a great job in that area, but the freshmen gave us some energy and can score a bit. Against Purdue, you have to be an elite defensive team and also score enough points to beat them.
"I liked how the young guys gave us a spark off the bench. Considering we have seven of them, you have to play them. We have to find minutes for them, and we are still a work in progress, especially when you are playing teams at this level." On Dylan Grant Sitting for a Stretch in the Second Half
"Dylan has to rebound, obviously. That is the number one thing that guys like him and Darren Buchanan have to do for us — rebound. I just liked the other guys' energy. We need him to be really good. He is still playing his 25–26 minutes and averaging around 29 minutes, but we need him to rebound, and that is going to be a big part of this moving forward." On Baye Fall's Role
"I am just trying to find someone to rebound, really. We put him in and gave him a chance. We put Gevonte [Ware] in. They are all going to have their chances.
"Despite not playing the greatest in the first or second halves, they are still going to have chances. If they keep swinging punches and keep doing what we need them to do, we are going to eventually find guys who get up and rebound.
"He will have his chance coming around. For instance, E [Emmanuel Ogbole] is coming off his best career game with a double-double. Bryce [Dortch] has been productive in his minutes, so there are not a lot of minutes left at that position. But we need those guys to be more consistent too." On Positives Heading Into the Michigan Matchup
"We have played minutes this year really well. We had some spurts where we did really good things, but they are such an elite team. They have played 150 games together as a unit. When you make a mistake — late in screen coverage, not having your split hand down when defending those pocket passes — it causes tremendous problems.
"They surround the best point guard in the country with elite shooters and a big guy that can rebound. You have to be elite on the defensive end. Ideally, we hoped to keep them in the seventies. I think we kind of could have, but we made too many mistakes and second shots really got to us.
"More importantly, we showed that we can play with a really good basketball team — but not for enough minutes. In this league, you have to play forty." On Braden Smith's Performance
"First of all, he is such a good shooter now. Not only do you have to guard him on pick-and-rolls to pass the ball — and he has elite vision — but he is tremendously crafty, and his ability to create his own shot, fade away, make midrange shots, come off and take some off-balance threes that just swish.
"He plays with experience and a swagger in his game. He is going to be the all-time leading assist guy in college basketball history, so this is not just a regular guy. He is going to beat Bobby Hurley's record, which has not been beaten for 30 years.
"He can do everything — he will defend, he is gutsy, he makes free throws. I will be glad when he graduates."
On Whether the Rebounding Issues Are Strategy or Discipline
"There are a lot of things. There is a will about rebounding — something you cannot teach. Rebounders rebound, and you have to have a knack for going up there. You have to like physicality too.
"We do more rebounding drills than any team in the country. We talk about it, we send them texts about it, we email them about it. You have to find a way to do it, or I have to find the right guys willing to sacrifice.
"There is no reason we cannot be a good rebounding team. And we have had games where we have been a good rebounding team. We just have to do that consistently. It has to be part of our package.
"It is killing our defense too. Our defensive numbers are bad because we do not rebound. And then we foul too on second shots. I think they got eleven second-chance points tonight. We lose by fifteen or sixteen points — you know what I mean? That is a big part of this thing.
"There is strategy with it. There are substitutions with it. You have to find the right matchups. When do we switch matchups? Then you are in tough places sometimes. And with the way they run offense, you have to kind of switch up at times.
"But we will continue to address it, and we will find some guys dedicated to it. That is what we have to do next." On Solidifying the Rotation as the Schedule Toughens
"The guys will find that solidified rotation. We did not have two good practices leading up to this. We have to do a better job practicing consistently, and the players have to be more consistent.
"This team has had five different guys score over 20 points in a game — we do not have the consistency. We have to find some guys doing that every night, and it takes time. We have seven freshmen and a lot of newcomers who need to learn some things. So the consistency has to be better there.
"We have to find it. I wish I had every team figured out. I know Matt [Painter] has his team figured out. He knows he is playing the point guard for 35 minutes. He knows he is playing Kaufman-Renn for 35 minutes. He knows he is playing Fletcher Loyer for 35 minutes. And now he knows his center Oscar Cluff is playing.
"That is the luxury of having 150 games under your belt. Seven or eight games in, you are still trying to figure some stuff out.
"And some of our guys — like Kaden Powers — he was our best player the last two days in practice. So he had a chance today to get in the game because of the work that he did the last couple of days. But he has to be more consistent too with his minutes." On Player Retention and Navigating the Portal Era
"Retention is a huge part of this, and you have to have the resources to retain it. That is what he is able to do, and he does a great job. But that has been a challenge for three years.
"J-Mike [Jamichael Davis] has gotten better over three years; he knows our defensive coverage, and we are lucky. We have had three years with him. There are not many of those guys in our program.
"We have a couple guys with two years — like Dylan Grant. You see the jump he has taken in just a year. Bryce Dortch has gotten better. Emmanuel has gotten better. But those are the only veterans.
"I used to be able to call a play out and have the team diagram it and remember it and run it. You do not have that luxury now. When you change defenses or coverages, if everyone is not connected, it breaks down.
"In the past, you had veteran guys who knew how to rotate and knew what that stuff meant. Now you have to keep practicing, watch film, keep these guys on top of it. But you cannot give them the full plate until they know what they are doing with what you already have in.
"Adding stuff — especially at league time, when you know the habits of teams — you miss having veterans. And he [Matt Painter] has great veterans. We do not. But that is not an excuse, and we have to figure it out.
"That is what this league is about — you have to figure it out in a league with seven ranked teams, not eighteen. This is a league where you have to figure it out."  
Purdue Head Coach Matt Painter Coach Matt Painter on Pulling Away After Rutgers Cut the Lead to One
"I think it was our shot-making. Braden [Smith] made three threes early in the half, and Gicarri [Harris] made those threes also. We did a good job on the glass. We did not turn the ball over in the first half — we had three turnovers in the first half and six in the second — so we did a much better job early. We were giving ourselves opportunities.
"TK [Trey Kaufman-Renn] and Oscar [Cluff] are pretty good offensive rebounders. So if we are taking good shots, even if we don't make them, they can get tap-backs or offensive rebounds. A couple of those plays were spraying-out offensive rebounds, which just breaks people's backs. You play good defense, you get them to miss, and they end up scoring." On Keeping the Crowd Out of the Game
"I thought the total of our team — the start of the second half — was huge. We really played well. We played well for about six to eight minutes there and took the lead up. That's what we had to do so, you know, they didn't get into it.
"I don't think we played great after that, but we had it at 23 points, so we had it at a pretty good distance. But this place can get really loud. This is a great home-court advantage, and we've been on the other end of that. Rutgers played six freshmen, and they were out there a lot in the second half." On Rutgers Playing So Many Younger Players
"It works if you can keep them. If you can't keep them, who cares? If you can say, 'Hey, he is going to be pretty good,' well, he is going to be pretty good for Rutgers then. Now he becomes a sophomore — but if he leaves, that is the dilemma. That is why the rule stinks, because you can't grow him if you can't keep him. That is just the nature of development.
"Think about the flipside. Think about the experiences that Fletcher Loyer, Braden Smith, Trey Kaufman-Renn have all had. They have all been freshmen in this building. They have been sophomores in this building. We are at an advantage — we have corporate DNA. We have guys that can coach our team; they coach our team. That is what you want. You empower people that stay in your program and grow.
"You go look at this program and you look at Caleb McConnell, and you look at dudes like that — that is what this program's about: tough, gritty, growing. You saw how Caleb was as a freshman, then as a junior, and then as a senior. That is the epitome of development. But it is not just a Rutgers issue — it is a college-basketball issue.
"If you play young guys and you live with them, and now they go into their sophomore years, they are going to be better. But if you cannot keep your core group together, that is what makes it hard. A lot of coaches will say, 'I am going to stick with this; I am going to play some young guys,' and then the guys leave them. That is why you see people just play older guys and go in the portal. Like, why not? You are trying to win the Big Ten. You are trying to keep your job, right? So it is a tough racket to put your thumb on at times."