The Huskies were unable to complete the climb out of a steep early hole against the Boilermakers
The Washington Huskies men's basketball team were unable to pull off a monumental upset and fell 81-73 to the No. 5 Purdue Boilermakers on Jan. 7 at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Ind.
The loss dropped Washington's overall record to 9-6 on the season and 1-3 in Big Ten play.
The Huskies, as has been the case in many of their losses this season, found themselves down in the first half before launching a second-half comeback.
The Boilermakers opened the game on a 9-0 run that immediately put the Dawgs in a multi-possession hole. Washington never had the lead or tied Purdue after the latter's opening run.
The Huskies cut the Boilermakers' 9-0 lead to three after back-to-back 3-pointers from senior guards Desmond Claude and Quimari Peterson, respectively. Peterson's triple came with 16 minutes, 22 seconds left in the first half.
Peterson's 3-pointer was the last field goal for Washington until freshman forward Hannes Steinbach hit a layup with 12:14 left in the first half.
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Purdue continued to build its lead while holding the Huskies' offense at bay. The Boilermakers led 45-28 at halftime.
Washington completed just 33.3% (9-for-27) of its shots from the field in the first half compared to 67.9% (19-for-28) for Purdue.
The Boilermakers extended their lead to 23 points several times in the second half.
With 10:15 left in the game, the Huskies trailed 64-42.
After that point, Washington went on an 8-0 run. After the two sides exchanged baskets, the Huskies went on another 6-0 run to cut Purdue's lead to 71-61 with 3:37 left in the game.
Another 3-point shot by Peterson with 3:10 left pulled Washington to within single-digits for the first time since the first half.
Peterson finished with 15 points on 5-for-14 shooting (5-for-12 from beyond the arc), three assists and a steal.
The Huskies were unable to get closer than eight points to the Boilermakers the rest of the game after Peterson's triple.
Steinbach finished the game with 17 points on a 7-for-11 clip from the floor and had four rebounds and three steals.
Sophomore guard Zoom Diallo posted 14 points and eight assists and senior center Franck Kepnang had a 10-point, 10-rebound double-double while adding two steals.
Both Diallo and Kepnang fouled out of the game.
Washington will next be in action at 3 p.m. PT on Jan. 11 at Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle. That matchup will kick off a three-game homestand which includes contests against No. 2 Michigan on Jan. 14 and No. 12 Michigan State on Jan. 17.
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