National Player of the Year candidate Braden Smith only scored five points while No. 1 Purdue beat Memphis 80-71 Thursday night in the Baha Mar Championships in Nassau, Bahamas. But he certainly proved his value in other ways.
Smith added 12 assists and had only two turnovers in 37 minutes, guiding the Boilermakers through a tough, chippy game with the Tigers. He also played a big role in holding the Tigers without a field goal in the final six minutes while the Boilermakers regained the lead and led to the finish line.
Fletcher Loyer led Purdue with 20 points, including four three-pointers. C.J. Cox also had four threes and scored 18 points. Big men Trey Kaufman-Renn had 12 and Oscar Cluff had 11.
Cox, a sophomore from Lexington, Mass., came into the game averaging only 5.0 points, so his contributions were huge.
“He’s a guy whether he plays 10 minutes, 30 minutes or 25, he guards his ass off and knocks down shots,” Loyer said of Cox. “He’s a guy that you can rely on to go out there and make winning plays when he's got the ball in his hands.”
Smith was just 2-of-14 shooting and made 1-of-7 shots from deep. The last time he only made two field goals in a regular season game was Feb. 23 in a loss to Indiana.
Purdue will play No. 15-ranked Texas Tech in the championship game Saturday night at 9:30 p.m. ET. Texas Tech beat Wake Forest 84-83 Thursday.
