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GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 25, EXPRESS 13 • 11 BY KYLE CHARTERS KCharters@GoldandBlack.com W ith all the height — and length — on this Boilermaker team this season, Purdue expected to be able to win consistently on the glass. That's yet to happen. And in fact, Purdue's too often losing sig- nificantly on the boards, a disturb- ing trend early this season. Overall, opponents are outrebounding the Boilermakers (3-3) by 3.5 per game, placing Purdue 12th in the Big Ten. In the last two losses, to George Washington and Florida State, the Boilermakers were beaten a com- bined 90-56 on the glass; Green Bay had 13 offensive boards in its double-overtime upset in Mackey Arena; and Purdue was out-done by Toledo and Texas Tech in rebound- ing, yet won those games. "No question," Coach Sharon Versyp said "We should be a better rebounding team. Whitney Bays is doing her job; nobody else is doing their jobs. And our guards are very, very, very poor at rebounding of- fensively and defensively. But you can't just have Whitney rebounding, it's got to be collective. You should have four or five or six people aver- aging those type of boards. It's only five games, but it's going to be a key for us to do what we do well." Bays is averaging 10.2 per game, far and away the tops among the Boilermakers. Only fellow senior forward Liza Clemons also aver- ages better than four, at 4.8, yet even that is down from her 5.5 last season. Point guard April Wilson averages 3.6. Clemons says the Boilermakers simply need to box out. "Because if you go out and look at film, yeah we were in front but were we actually using our bodies to push them back and get them on our backs and get us from under - neath the basket in order to have an advantage to get the rebound?" she said. The answer, more often than not, is no. The Boilermakers are fre- quently allowing the opponent to push them too far under the basket, then grabbing the offensive boards. Purdue ranks 13th in the Big Ten in defensive rebounding, an indica- tion of how many offensive boards they're allowing. "If everybody has the focus of 'My player isn't getting the re- bound,' then we'd be a great re- bounding team," Clemons said. It needs to be a collective. Purdue's 2 and 3 spots, the latter where the 6-foot-2 Bridget Perry has started five games, aren't con- tributing much to the glass. Perry is averaging only 2.2 rebounds per game, not enough consider- ing she position and height. "They're not doing anything," Versyp said of the 3 spot, regard- ing rebounding. "And obviously Tom Campbell Purdue's struggling mightily on the boards and getting loose balls, including vs. Florida State Wednesday when it gave up 18 second-chance points. 2014-15 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE Date Opponent Time Nov. 9 FINDLAY (exb.) (BTN Plus) W, 84-25 Nov. 14 at Ball State W, 66-60 Nov. 19 GREEN BAY L, 78-81(2OT) Nov. 23 TOLEDO (BTN Plus) W, 66-48 Junkanoo Jam, Freeport, Bahamas Nov. 28 Texas Tech W, 69-53 Nov. 29 Geo. Washington/N Carolina L, 59-79 Big Ten/ACC Challenge Dec. 3 FLORIDA STATE (BTN Plus) L, 64-67 (OT) Dec. 7 at Dayton 2 p.m. Dec. 11 KANSAS (BTN Plus) 7 p.m. World Vision Classic Dec. 19 UC IRVINE Noon Dec. 20 DENVER 2:30 p.m. Dec. 21 WRIGHT STATE 2:30 p.m. Dec. 28 at Illinois (BTN Plus) 3 p.m. Jan. 1 MINNESOTA (BTN Plus) 2 p.m. Jan. 4 INDIANA (BTN Plus) 2 p.m. Jan. 8 at Maryland (BTN) 6:30 p.m. Jan. 11 at Iowa (BTN) TBA Jan. 15 WISCONSIN (BTN Plus) 7 p.m. Jan. 19 at Nebraska (BTN) 7 p.m. Jan. 22 at Minnesota (BTN Plus) 8 p.m. Jan. 25 OHIO STATE (BTN Plus) 2 p.m. Jan. 29 RUTGERS (BTN) 7 p.m. Feb. 2 at Indiana (BTN) 8:30 p.m. Feb. 8 PENN STATE (BTN Plus) 2 p.m. Feb. 11 NORTHWESTERN (BTN Plus) 7 p.m. Feb. 14 at Rutgers (BTN) Noon Feb. 17 at Ohio State (BTN) 7 p.m. Feb. 21 ILLINOIS (BTN/BTN Plus) TBA Feb. 24 at Michigan (BTN) 7 p.m. Feb. 28 MICHIGAN STATE (BTN) 2 p.m. March 4-8 Big Ten Tournament* TBA * Sears Centre, Hoffman Estates, Ill. All times ET W O M E N ' S BA S K E T BA L L : N E W S A N D N OT E S Double vertime LOOKING FOR MORE OFF GLASS