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w o m e n ' s b a s k e t b a l l g o l d b o x e s l i n k t o g a m e s t o r i e s A Look Back At the last week of basketball BY KYLE CHARTERS KCharters@GoldandBlack.com W ith a win over Belmont, Purdue advanced through the early portion of its schedule unscathed. But it knew the competition would increase quickly, and did, with a tilt vs. the sixth-ranked Stanford Cardinal. While the Boilermakers hung in for the first 30-plus minutes, they were unable to deal with the Cardinal's size and physicality down the stretch, absorbing their first loss. Following are observations from the week. S Purdue needs its bigs, as few of them as there are, to be effective. It simply can't expect to beat the best of the best — like Stanford and No. 2 Duke coming up next month — by being only perimeter-oriented. It was that way against Stanford, with Liza Clemons and Whitney Bays getting in foul trouble and being largely ineffective. And without good interior options, Stanford could focus on slowing the perimeter, closing down lanes and forcing Purdue to hit only 4-of-23 three-point attempts. It's a credit to the Boilermakers that despite those disadvantages, they were able to stick with the Cardinal, which has eight players taller than 6-foot, through a majority of Flash Forward Opponent: TCU Location: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday Notables: The Horned Frogs (4-1) beat Florida Gulf Coast 6847 Tuesday in their first game of the Hardwood Tournament of Hope in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Natalie Ventress had a seasonhigh 14 points and nine rebounds in the win. … The game vs. Purdue will be TCU's third in as many days; it faces South Dakota St. at 7:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday. The Boilermakers will have had a day off. … Purdue has played TCU only once previously, a 93-74 win in 2002. … Boilermaker guard KK Houser needs only eight points to reach 1,000 for her career. the game. S Sharon Versyp is using her bench liberally, with eight players averaging at least 11 minutes per game. A ninth player, freshman Ashley Morrissette, is averaging only 7.2 minutes per, but they've been highly efficient; during that time, she's averaging 5.6 points, the fifthmost among Boilermakers. She's hit 65 percent of her field goals and 60 percent from long range. Two others — Camille Redmon and Hayden Hamby — are averaging at least eight minutes per game. Will rotations tighten? And if so, who gets left out? As the season goes on, minutes could be harder to come by for some. Redmon, for instance, is likely to see minutes against bigger front lines, because her 6-foot-4 frame can be a deterrent for them, but could get far fewer in other situations. It'll be a balancing act for Versyp going forward. S Senior guard KK Houser is averaging a team-high 16.4 points per game, showing a willingness to attack defenses relentlessly. Houser's move from primary point guard to an off guard has been a net positive, as it gives Purdue a scorer from the wing, something it has lacked in recent years. But Houser's shooting percent age is only 33 percent, including 31 percent from three-point range. In the last week, she made only four of her 24 attempts. You'd like to see the percentages swing up. The senior is doing a lot of damage from the free throw line, where she's hit 28-of-34 this season. S Purdue would like to take at least one in this three-game stretch, vs. No. 6 Stanford, TCU and at second-ranked Duke, making the game against the Horned Frogs critically important. But they're no slouch either, an athletic team avTom Campbell KK Houser had 20 points in the loss to Stanford, but hit eraging 76 points per game while only four of her 16 shots from the field. allowing only 56. j GoldanDBlack express • volume 24, express 12 • 36