Penn State men’s basketball saw its three-game winning streak come to a close on Sunday as the Nittany Lions fell 68-63 at Northwestern. Penn State is now 12-12 on the year and 6-7 in conference play after an early surge to open the 2024 slate.
Nick Kern led the way with 18 points while Ace Baldwin Jr. managed 17 on a far less effective outing from the field than usual with a 4-for-13 clip. Zach Hicks poured in 14 of his own while Qudus Wahab had five of Penn State’s 10 blocks. The Nittany Lions are back in action against Michigan State this Wednesday at the Bryce Jordan Center.
Ball Security: Heading into Sunday’s contest Penn State had turned the ball over a double-digit number of times on just three occasions over the previous 10 games. For a team that has been quite good all year at forcing turnovers [opponents have turned the ball over single-digit times in a game just twice all season], the Nittany Lions had also gotten pretty good at taking care of the ball in their own right. On Sunday there were two stats that didn’t help Penn State here – seven first half turnovers and then three turnovers in the final 3:34 of regulation of a still close game. Northwestern would end up making the most of Penn State’s miscues with seven points off of turnovers. That might not seem like a lot, but in a game decided by just a few points, all the little things add up.
Old Problems: Penn State has never been a great rebounding team but it has figured out ways to be slightly better at it over the past several weeks. Those older issues showed up again on Sunday as Northwestern managed 13 offensive rebounds to Penn State’s three and racked up 18 second chance points in the process, also to Penn State’s three. Penn State ended up going a modest -6 on the glass, which isn’t that bad, but nothing hurts a team more than getting a stop and then seeing the ball end up back in their opponents’ possession. Penn State has won the rebounding battle just twice in Big Ten play this season, the Nittany Lions might have struggled at other times for very different reasons, but not getting rebounds sure isn’t helping any.
Efficiency Lost: Ace Baldwin Jr. had done a good job the past few games finding the basket an an effective clip but regressed a bit Sunday afternoon going 4-for-13 from the field. He did manage an 8-for-9 clip from the line but with Kanye Clary struggling, Baldwin was unable to pick up the slack for the first time in a while. Baldwin himself got some help from Nick Kern and Zach Hicks, but Penn State won’t win many games that see Baldwin and Clary both struggling from the field. In total they managed a mark of 4-for-16 from the floor. Silver lining for Penn State is simply the fact the Nittany Lions were still in the game in spite of this.
Ye Power: Kanye Clary appears to still be finding his sea legs as he went just 0-for-3 on the day while playing just 14 minutes of action. In his return since being injured late against Minnesota, Clary has gone 2-for-7 from the field and on Sunday posted a -15 +/- mark to lead the team in the worst scoring swing among the Nittany Lions to take the floor. In some respects Penn State has played very good basketball in the absence of Clary during his brief time away, but it’s hard to imagine the Nittany Lions will win too many more games this season if Clary can’t find his stride again.
Rim Protection: Qudus Wahab finished the afternoon having racked up five block which marked a season-high for a big man who has become a steady contributor for Penn State on both ends of the floor. The Nittany Lions as a team had a whopping 10 blocks on the day but Wahab is up to 35 of his own on the year after a dry spell that saw him not register a block in each of the two previous games. Wahab added four points [2-for-2 shooting] and five rebounds to go along with his stuffs. Wahab is shooting around 65% from the field this season and 74% from the line. A solid campaign continues for the guy who has played just about everywhere in college basketball.
