Penn State men’s basketball erased an 11-point deficit on Saturday to beat Indiana 85-71 for the Nittany Lions’ first win in Bloomington since 2014. The win was Penn State’s second straight in Big Ten play to improve to 5-6 on the year in conference action and 11-11 overall.
With nine regular season games left to go, Penn State will play just four on the road, with Iowa, Michigan State, Illinois, Indiana and Maryland all still set to visit State College. But before the Nittany Lions head back home to host the Hawkeyes, here are five observations from a come-from-behind victory over the Hoosiers.
Five: Penn State finished the afternoon having scored 85 points with five different players hitting the double-figure scoring mark. Ace Baldwin Jr led the way with 20 points with Zach Hicks sitting at 19, the duo managing seven makes from beyond the arc. Jameel Brown, D’Marco Dunn and Qudus Wahab all got in on the action as well with 14, 10 and 14 points respectively. Penn State shot 57.4% from the field, managed assists on 17 of the team’s 31 made baskets and never looked back after taking the lead in the second half in a game that saw one lead change the entire day. It’s hard to imagine that Penn State is better off without Kanye Clary, but it’s hard to ignore how well the Nittany Lions have played without him too. If and when he’s healthy, it will be interesting to see where he fits into the equation. A weird thing to say about a team’s leading scorer.
12-for-22: Penn State entered Saturday’s game one of the worst teams in the nation at three point shooting and ended the afternoon having gone 12-for-22 from beyond the arc. There is something fitting about this for longtime watchers of Penn State basketball who’ve seen the Nittany Lions fall to more than a few random players inexplicably shoot like Steph Curry against them. This time the shoe was on the other foot and it was Penn State shooting far better than it has all year. The Nittany Lions have shown glimpses of being a better team from deep, but the combo of Ace Baldwin Jr and Jameel Brown going 7-for-10 from long range was something else. Three different Nittany Lions made three or more from range, all three of them shooting over 50% in the process.
Bench Help: The Nittany Lions outscored Indiana off the bench 18-3 as Jameel Brown and Puff Johnson racked up all 18 of those points in relief of a balanced scoring attack from Penn State’s starting unit. Brown has long been itching for a bigger role on this team and without Kanye Clary available in the rotation due to injury, he has made the most of his moments so far. Johnson continues to be a hot-and-cold scorer, but any points (and four rebounds) he can give the Nittany Lions the happier head coach Mike Rhoades will be. Every team hopes that the bench can keep a lead when the stars are taking a break, Penn State’s bench did that on Saturday.
Six: Penn State turned the ball over just six times while managing 17 points off of 13 Indiana turnovers. The Nittany Lions continue to give up points on their own mistakes, the Hoosiers scoring 13 points off of half as many turnovers, but Penn State has by and large turned into a team that takes care of the ball while also finding ways to turn other teams over. Four different Penn State players recorded a steal on Saturday, three of them picking up two steals. Penn State might have other weaknesses it has to address, but hardly turning the ball over on the road is a big first step to winning.
Back-to-Back: Penn State has now won back-to-back Big Ten games (both on the road) by double digits, a mark that is sitting in some rarified air. Penn State won road games in back-to-back contests last season (at Minnesota and then at Ohio State) and similarly in 2019-20, but you’ll have to dig pretty deep to find a circumstance in which both victories came by such convincing margins. At 11-11 on the year the Nittany Lions are going to need to do a lot of things to climb their way into postseason conversations, but Penn State is playing confident basketball and doing it on the road. Penn State is next back home to face Iowa.
