Purdue beats Iowa in Big Ten opener

IOWA CITY (AP) ? Robbie Hummel scored 16 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in his return to Big Ten play and Purdue opened the conference season with a 79-76 win at Iowa Wednesday night.

Reserve D.J. Byrd added a season-high 14 points for the Boilermakers (11-3), who won despite getting 18 fewer free-throw attempts than the Hawkeyes.

?It?s different in the Big Ten. I love playing league games. There?s a different level of intensity,? Hummel said. ?It was fun to be back.?

Hummel wasn?t much fun for the Hawkeyes in the final seconds, hitting a pair of free throws and stuffing Devyn Marble with 6 seconds left to seal the win.

Marble scored 17 points and had six assists to lead the Hawkeyes (8-6), who lost their fifth straight Big Ten opener. They held Ryne Smith to just five points, but Hummel, Byrd and the 36 points that Purdue?s bench scored was too much to overcome.

?I thought we did a pretty good job on Hummel. He just fought, fought to get to 16 (points),? Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said. ?It was all defense, and I think the concerning thing for us ? it?s a pattern of behavior that we have consistently tried to change.?