WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A monster night from sophomore Wesley Yates III wasn’t nearly enough for the short-handed USC men’s basketball team on Friday night.
Yates scored 22 of his career-high 30 points in the first half, but a Trojans squad playing without leading scorer Desmond Claude was no match for seventh-ranked Purdue in a 90-72 loss at Mackey Arena.
Trey Kaufman-Renn had 24 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Boilermakers (19-5 overall, 11-2 Big Ten), who overwhelmed USC in the paint on the way to their fourth straight win and 11th in their past 12 games. Fletcher Loyer added 14 points for Purdue, which outrebounded the Trojans 48-31. Braden Smith and Caleb Furst each just missed joining Kaufman-Renn with double-doubles. Smith finished with nine points and a team-high 13 assists, and Furst added had nine points and 10 rebounds.
Yates, whose previous high was 21 points, had to play much of the second half with four fouls after he picked up his fourth with 16:25 minutes left. Isaiah Elohim added 11 points and Jalen Shelley had 10 points and six rebounds for USC (13-10, 5-7), which trailed by as much as 26 and lost its second in a row since upsetting then-No. 7 Michigan State last weekend.
Claude, a 6-foot-6 junior guard (16.2 ppg), has been battling a knee injury and also sat out Tuesday’s 77-75 loss at Northwestern.
The conference-leading Boilermakers established dominance of the lane early to take a double-digit lead less than seven minutes into the game.
Purdue pulled ahead 21-10 with 18 of its points coming from inside. The Boilermakers outscored USC in the paint 52-36 for the night and nearly had as many points in the key by halftime (32) as the Trojans had in total (36).
Kaufman-Renn set the tone, shooting 7 for 9 from the floor in the first half for 14 points. The Boilermakers shot 67% in the first half to build a 48-36 lead by halftime.
Both teams struggled from 3-point range: USC shot 4 for 26, while Purdue was 6 for 26, but USC also went just 16 for 29 from the free-throw line. Clark Slajchert, who scored a season-high 24 points on Tuesday, shot 0 for 6 from 3-point range and 2 for 10 from the floor on his way to seven points.
Purdue, which has won 29 of its last 30 home games, moved two games up in the win column over Michigan State and Michigan in its quest for a third consecutive Big Ten regular-season title.
UP NEXT
USC plays host to Penn State on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Galen Center.