WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Purdue's Trey Kaufman-Renn took advantage of his opportunity with leading scorer Zach Edey out with illness.
Kaufman-Renn came off the bench to score a season-best 24 points to lead No. 1 Purdue past New Orleans 74-53 on Wednesday night.
’It feels good just to play basketball again,” said Kaufman-Renn, who sat out last season as a freshman. “Obviously, if you are on a really good team and winning games that helps, too. It’s been fun.”
The 6-foot-9 redshirt freshman whose previous high was 13 points hit 8 of 10 shots and 8 of 10 free throws for the Boilermakers (12-0).
“He has great footwork,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said of Kaufman-Renn. “He has the spin cycle there and does that reverse. He’s pretty nimble. For him, it’s comfort level. He just has to get into a game and get comfortable quick and that’s a hard thing to do coming off the bench.”
The only other Boilermaker in double figures was Mason Gillis with 11 points. Edey is averaging team highs of 22.6 points and 13.9 rebounds.
“We preach next man up all the time, so if anyone gets injured, sick or COVID we dealt with two years ago, we’ve learned it’s next man up and you’ve got to do your job,” Gillis said. “It’s understanding what you need to do to help the team get a win.”
Painter said it was good to see what the team could do without Edey.
Jordan Johnson scored 17 points to lead the Privateers (3-8), who have lost five of their last six games. Tyson Jackson had 14 for New Orleans.
The Boilermakers started slowly but regrouped to shoot 59% en route to a 41-21 lead. New Orleans was held to 35% shooting in the first half.