LINCOLN, Neb. -- Purdue already had a decisive height advantage on Nebraska, and then another forward emerged to make life miserable for the Huskers.

Sophomore forward Vince Edwards scored 20 points -- double his season average -- and No. 15 Purdue raced to a quick start in an 81-62 victory over Nebraska on Tuesday night at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

Edwards was 8 of 12 shooting from the field as Purdue shot 65.2 percent in the second half and 56.6 percent for the night.

"Vince had a good game. He was aggressive, and that's what we need him to do," Purdue coach Matt Painter said. "We need him to be able to look for that drive, look for that shot, because when he does that and they guard him closely, that really opens up things for our post guys. So that really helps us with our spacing."

Senior forward A.J. Hammons scored 16 points and sophomore guard Dakota Mathias added 11 for Purdue (23-7, 11-6 Big Ten). The Boilermakers completed a season sweep of Nebraska and improved to 6-1 against the Huskers since they joined the Big Ten in 2011.

Senior forward Shavon Shields scored a season-high 32 points for Nebraska (14-16, 6-11). Playing on Senior Night, Shields was 11 of 19 from the field in his second game back from a concussion.

Shields had missed four straight games since his Feb. 6 injury and scored 25 in his first game back, a loss on Thursday at Penn State. He entered the game averaging 16 points and fell three points shy of his career high.

"I really don't care about it because we didn't win," Shields said. "That is all I have to say about it."

Purdue led by 21 points in the first half, had that lead trimmed to eight by halftime and then reopened a 17-point lead midway through the second half.

The Boilermakers scored the game's first four points and led beginning to end.

With its decisive height advantage, Purdue outscored Nebraska 40-28 in the paint and outrebounded the Huskers 35-29. The Boilermakers have outrebounded all but one opponent this season.

Nebraska coach Tim Miles understood his teams disadvantage inside, but didn't like that his team seemed to accept it with resignation.

"We didn't make multiple efforts, and when you're outmatched, when you're physically at a disadvantage, you've got to have this urgency and intensity on the ball, everywhere," Miles said. "We just didn't have that. That was disappointing. I don't know if we were, quite frankly, intimidated with some of our guys, or what it was, but I didn't have them in the right place mentally, obviously. The one thing we have to do is we have to be able to fight."

Purdue settled for a 41-33 halftime lead after leading by as many as 21 points in the first half.

Even when Hammons sat with his second foul with 10:40 remaining until halftime, Purdue continued a 13-0 run to open a 30-9 lead with 8:19 left.

"We're better than that," Nebraska junior guard Tai Webster said.

The Boilermakers had three straight 3-pointers in the run, two by Edwards, who had 12 first-half points.

"They were getting whatever they wanted," Shields said. "They got easy layups, a lot of good threes and stuff like that. When you leave a good team like that wide open, good things are going to happen."

Shields ended the run with 7:48 left, the first of seven straight points for Shields, who scored 19 before halftime.

Webster completed a three-point play to finish a 10-0 run, and Shields later converted a three-point play and hit a 3-pointer.

Webster's steal and layup, thanks to a goaltending call, drew the Huskers within 39-33 before Mathias made two free throws with 0.7 of a second left for the halftime margin.

"We knew they were going to make a run at us there in the first half, and obviously Shields got really hot--he was close to unstoppable," Painter said. "The shots he was making were really tough shots. But I thought our guys did a good job in the first half just hanging in there and trying to execute on the offensive end. Then in the second half, we were able to make more runs and push the lead out."

NOTES: In conference games only, Hammons is the only Big Ten player to rank in the top in scoring (10th), rebounding (third) and field goal percentage (fifth). He also ranks second in the league in blocked shots. ... Nebraska G Andrew White needs one point to become the 14th Nebraska basketball player to score 500 points in a season. ... Both teams close the regular season on Sunday. Nebraska will play at Northwestern, and Purdue will host Wisconsin.