No. 1 Purdue hosts Fruster and Eastern Illinois

By Canadian Press on November 27, 2025.

Eastern Illinois Panthers (2-4) at Purdue Boilermakers (6-0)

West Lafayette, Indiana; Friday, 12 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Eastern Illinois takes on No. 1 Purdue after Zion Fruster scored 21 points in Eastern Illinois’ 81-60 loss to the Central Arkansas Bears.

The Boilermakers are 3-0 on their home court. Purdue is fourth in the Big Ten with 12.8 offensive rebounds per game led by Oscar Cluff averaging 5.3.

The Panthers are 0-4 on the road. Eastern Illinois has a 1-3 record in games decided by at least 10 points.

Purdue averages 86.5 points, 14.7 more per game than the 71.8 Eastern Illinois allows. Eastern Illinois averages 4.7 made 3-pointers per game this season, 4.6 fewer made shots on average than the 9.3 per game Purdue gives up.

TOP PERFORMERS: Fletcher Loyer is shooting 46.8% and averaging 16.3 points for the Boilermakers. Braden Smith is averaging 1.8 made 3-pointers.

Kooper Jacobi is scoring 11.2 points per game and averaging 5.7 rebounds for the Panthers. Fruster is averaging 17.3 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

The Associated Press