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GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 25, EXPRESS 17 • 2 without a damaging loss. Hammons was excellent, with 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting and 12 re- bounds. "When we were getting it inside, it was really working for us, (and) it really opened the court for us," guard Jon Oc- teus said. "It spread out the court. The shooting from a couple of our guards also spread the defense and allowed us to get back inside, especially the way they were playing off Kendall. It just al- lowed for a lot of space for us to operate." Hammons was excellent, dominat- ing the interior matchup against Penn State's inferior big men. For the most part. Seven turnovers were a black eye on the box score and a phase of Pur- due's game that it will want to clean up. "It starts with our post play," Painter said of the turnover issues. "Hammons has seven turnovers and almost all of them are just him not making a funda- mental play and being simple and ba- sic in what he's doing. "That's where it starts for us, either feeding the post or the decisions after we get the ball in the post. You have to be accountable. If you're going to get the basketball inside, the guy feeding it has to do a good job delivering it, then that guy has to make a good decision whether to pass, shoot or dribble at that time." Purdue's transgressions didn't cost it a win at Penn State, a team that's now 0-5 in Big Ten play. But Wednesday night, in Cham - paign, against an Illinois team that's not dropped off much if at all without leading scorer and rebounder Rayvon- te Rice, it may be an entirely different story if Purdue's not careful. "There's just no way in the Big Ten you're going to win consistently with that many turnovers," Painter said. j Weekly Pic Tom Campbell Torrie Thornton coul only watch as the ball squirted away during Thursday's loss to Wisconsin. The Boilermakers are reeling right now, losers of three consecutive Big Ten games with two road games coming this week. IT'S PLUS-MINUS TIME AGAIN As a reminder, the figures below show how Purdue, as a team, fared when an individual was in the game. For example, after five Big Ten games, Purdue has scored 32 more points when Kendall Ste- phens is on the floor and 19 fewer points than its opponents when Basil Smotherman is on the court. Look for weekly updates in "Overtime" for the rest of league play. MINN MICH @WIS MARY @PSU TOT Kendall Stephens +8 +15 +1 +3 +5 +32 Vince Edwards +12 +19 -4 -12 +4 +19 Jon Octeus +15 +14 -5 -16 +9 +17 Isaac Haas +6 +2 -4 -1 +8 +11 Bryson Scott +1 DNP DNP 0 0 +1 Raphael Davis +4 +11 -5 -16 +7 +1 A.J. Hammons -2 +11 -3 -9 -1 -4 P.J. Thompson -9 +3 -4 +6 -2 -6 Dakota Mathias -7 -2 -4 -3 +4 -12 Basil Smotherman -8 -8 -7 +3 +1 -19 Note: Last season, Stephens was Purdue's leader with +50 and Hammons was second with +15, the only two players who finished with positive numbers.