A 12-3 MSU run to end the game kept the score respectable, but the damage had been done as Purdue walked away with a 69-59 win.

MSU head coach Suzy Merchant said she “really didn’t feel like we had anyone that had any kind of toughness about them today.”

MSU shot 1-of-13 to open the game and never recovered.

“It’s hard to win on the road when you go (1-for-13) ... and you’re getting good looks,” Merchant said.

“It’s not like we couldn’t get opportunities. A lot of those were layups and easy post moves by our best player. They just didn’t fall today.”

The second half started very similar to the first.

MSU was able to narrow Purdue’s lead to five on a 3-pointer by junior guard Mia Johnson and two free throws by senior guard Courtney Davidson, but the team then went cold, going without a field goal for 7:30 as the Boilermakers went on a game-changing 14-1 run.

“I just didn’t think our focus was there,” Merchant said.

Bench woes

MSU’s bench, which scored 34 points in the Spartans’ 56-54 win against the Boilermakers on Feb. 11, had little impact in this game, scoring only eight points all game.

Merchant said she hoped to use her team’s depth to their advantage — only one Boilermaker saw more than five minutes off the bench — but the advantage never materialized.

Purdue head coach Sharon Versyp recognized the problem and make a concerted effort to shutdown Davidson, who torched the Boilermakers for 17 points last time the teams met.

“We were definitely focused on not giving her any open looks,” Purdue guard FahKara Malone said.

“I think she got one or two off which was unfortunate for us, but we stayed in her face as much as we could.”

Davidson had five points on 1-of-6 shooting this time around.

The other four players who played off the bench scored a total of three points.

“When we execute a game plan, we do pretty well with it,” Versyp said.

“We were very, very prepared and our team was more focused on who was knocking down shots.”