Penn State men’s basketball made 16 attempts from beyond the arc on Thursday evening as the Nittany Lions rolled past Loyola Maryland 90-65. On any other night those 16 makes would have been historic, tying a single-game program record for made threes. But then just a few nights ago, Penn State broke that record, making 18 against Winthrop in the Nittany Lions’ season-opening 93-68 victory.
So 16 on Thursday was noteworthy, but no longer as historic as it was a few nights earlier.
In any case Penn State’s second victory of the season was much like the first. There are only so many ways to win by 25 after all. The Nittany Lions rolled out to an early lead and never really looked back. Penn State would find itself ahead by just two with under nine minutes to go in the first half but a 19-10 run in the final 8:49 of the first half gave the Nittany Lions a fairly comfortable 40-29 margin following 20 minutes of play. An 8-2 run to open the second half only accentuated the gap between the two teams and Penn State never led by less than 16 points in the final 15 minutes of regulation.
Penn State would shoot 70% from the field in the second half going 6-for-10 from beyond the arc with six different making a shot from deep in the process. The Nittany Lions were led by Camren Wynter’s 18 points while Myles Dread and Seth Lundy poured in 22 combined points. Guard Jalen Pickett struggled scoring but dished out 11 assists while committing just two turnovers in the process.
Through two games Penn State has attempted 68 three-point attempts which accounts of 58% of their shots taken from the field. Asked if the Nittany Lions are relying too heavily on the three, coach Micah Shrewsberry offered up a blunt retort. “No,” he said, “Three is greater than two.”
Penn State will need to find an interior game if it wants to truly compete in the Big Ten and true freshman Kebba Njie’s 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting and a team-high six rebounds certainly helped to establish an inside presence to balance out a so-far accurate long distance attack.
The Nittany Lions will next host Butler on Monday evening looking to start the year 3-0, a fitting number for a team that has seen plenty of threes so far this season.
