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Hummel, Purdue cruise past Coppin State

Nov 23, 2008 - 4:02 AM WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana (Ticker) -- Robbie Hummel appears ready to take his game to the bright lights of New York City.

Hummel scored 13 of his 20 points in the first half as No. 10 Purdue captured a 66-46 victory over Coppin State on Saturday.

The sophomore forward also grabbed 11 rebounds for his first double-double of the season and sixth of his career.

Nemanja Calasan added 11 points, eight rebounds and five assists for the Boilermakers (4-0), who were playing their last game before making the trip to Madison Square Garden for the semifinals of the NIT Season Tip-Off. They will face Boston College on Wednesday.

No. 14 Oklahoma and Alabama-Birmingham will meet in the other semifinal of the preseason tournament.

"I think that coach (Matt) Painter did a good job of getting us some games that were good tuneup games for us," Hummel said. "But now the tough part of our schedule begins."

Winning its first four games by an average of 28.3 points, Painter knows that the better competition will give him a better chance to find what his team is like.

"Obviously you don't have the experience from this year in terms of being in a close game," he said. "So until you get into that close game you really don't know how this team will respond."

The first freshman to earn All-Big Ten honors last season, Hummel will be making his first career appearance in "The World's Most Famous Arena."

Hummel made three of his first five shots, including two 3-pointers, in the first half to help Purdue take a 35-22 advantage at the half. The Boilermakers then opened the second half with a 10-2 run, pulling ahead by 21 points with 16:16 remaining.

After Tywain McKee hit a jumper for Coppin State with 14:30 left, Purdue went back to blowing opening the contest further with an 11-2 burst. The Boilermakers opened up a 56-28 lead following two free throws by Hummel with 8:29 to play.

Hummel went 7-of-7 from the line, and Purdue ended up 18-of-23 (78 percent).

E'Twaun Moore scored 10 points, grabbed eight rebounds and handed out five assists for the Boilermakers, who only shot 38 percent (21-of-55) from the field.

While it had some issues on the offensive end, Purdue was outstanding defensively, limiting Coppin State to no more than 25 points in either half - a benchmark for Painter.

"Our goal is to hold people to 25 points a half and that might be unrealistic to some but that's our goal," he said. "That's what we try to do is go out there and challenge our guys to try to beat that each half."

McKee scored 17 points for the Eagles (1-1), who shot 30 percent (18-of-60), including 3-of-18 on 3-pointers.