WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) — If his team was going to lose, coach Brad Underwood wanted to make sure it was someone other than Zach Edey who beat Illinois on Friday night.
So that’s exactly what Trey Kaufman-Renn did.
The redshirt sophomore scored a season-high 23 points, Lance Jones added 17 and No. 1 Purdue fended off a frantic late charge from the ninth-ranked Fighting Illini for an 83-78 victory.
“Trey Kaufman-Renn, man, I just told him out there in the hall he kicked our butt,” Underwood said. “I think when you play Zach, you can’t play normal. You have to try to make other players beat you and I think there’s some risk with that and we saw that tonight.”
Kaufman-Renn made eight of 12 shots, including a rare 3-pointer to briefly blunt Illinois as it was trying to erase a 21-point deficit in the final 13 minutes. The Boilermakers (14-1, 3-1 Big Ten) got their seventh straight win, this one in the first top-10 matchup at Mackey Arena since Jan. 1, 2010.
“I thought he was fabulous,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “He’s probably the difference for us tonight.”
Edey, the reigning national player of the year, spent the last eight minutes of each half in foul trouble. But as much as Illinois tried to deny him, Edey still wound up with 10 points and 15 rebounds while becoming the second Purdue player with 1,000 career boards. Only Joe Barry Carroll has more than Edey’s 1,006.
Marcus Domask had 26 points and Quincy Guerrier finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Fighting Illini (11-3, 2-1), who had won four in a row. They lost for the first time since top scorer Terrence Shannon Jr. was suspended after being charged with rape in Douglass County, Kansas.
The Illini never led in this one and dropped to 0-9 against No. 1 teams on the road.
But after falling behind 20-4, fighting back within three and then trailing by 21 with about 13 minutes left, Illinois made it interesting.
The Illini took advantage of a flagrant foul against Jones following a replay review to cut it to 81-75. They got within 81-78 when Coleman Hawkins made a 3 with 12.1 seconds to go, but Braden Smith answered with two free throws to seal it.
BIG PICTURE
Illinois: Mackey Arena has been a house of horrors for the Illini. That was still the case — even after they came in having topped 90 points in three straight games for the first time since December 1993. Illinois is 3-16 on the road when Purdue is ranked and 1-5 when both teams are in the top 10.
Purdue: Painter’s team entered ranked No. 1 for good reason — the Boilermakers had three wins against top-10 foes. Adding a fourth Friday night matched the 2009-11 teams for the best 50-game stretch (43-7) in school history.
POLL IMPLICATIONS
Illinois: Underwood’s team will slide. How far will be determined by what happens around the country this weekend.
Purdue: The Boilermakers appear poised for a fourth consecutive week atop the rankings. They already had the longest active streak of consecutive weeks in the top five (25), and it’s the second-longest streak by a Big Ten team in 45 years.
UP NEXT
Illinois: Hosts Michigan State on Thursday.
Purdue: Visits Nebraska on Tuesday.
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