The Minnesota Golden Gophers were unable to correct their troubling trend at road games, falling to the Purdue Boilermakers 75-67 Thursday night at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette.
Dating back to last season, the Gophers (13-5, 2-2) have now lost 13 of their last 15 games on the road.
Concerns of fatigue surrounded No. 12/11 Purdue (15-2, 4-0) after their first three conference games went to an overtime period, including a triple-overtime victory against Ohio State on Monday. With two days to rest, the Boilermakers had more than enough energy to contain top threats on the Gophers.
Sophomore guard Rachel Banham was out of sync. Despite scoring 17 points, she made just seven of 23 shots. Junior forward Micaella Riche was also neutralized, finishing with eight points and 11 rebounds.
The only Minnesota player to shoot above 50 percent for the game was Leah Cotton, who made six of eight field goals en route to 17 points. Freshman guard Shayne Mullaney added 12 points and five assists.
Purdue fed off a strong performance from Sam Ostarello, who earned her third straight double-double with 19 points and 14 rebounds, moving to a tie for first place in the Big Ten Conference for rebounds while her team retains a tie for first in the conference standings.
Purdue bested Minnesota in shooting accuracy with a 47 percent to 37 percent margin, allowing the home team to rack up assists quickly. Courtney Moses had 18 points and six assists for the Boilermakers, with K.K. Houser chipping in seven points and 10 assists.
The Gophers never led throughout the contest and only tied once, when a triple from Sari Noga evened the score at 20 midway through the first half.
Purdue's lead was trimmed to 38-35 early in the second half, but they responded with a 13-3 run in what was the game's most influential sequence. From that point, the margin roughly hovered around 10 points, with Purdue avoiding any serious trouble.
Minnesota returns home on Sunday, when they host Nebraska. The Cornhuskers fell out of the rankings last month after losses to South Dakota State and Creighton.
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