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Penn State bounces back with win over No. 21 Maryland

02/07/2017, 11:45pm EST
By Vince Lungaro

Tony Carr (above) and Penn State beat No. 21 Maryland on Tuesday night. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Vincent Lungaro (@VinceLungaro)
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When Pat Chambers took over Penn State in the summer of 2011, he envisioned the program becoming more than the mediocre Big Ten bottom-feeder that it had grown accustomed to be for several years.

He preached that Penn State was sleeping giant and he believed he was the right man to wake it up.

Chambers wanted the Nittany Lions to compete for Big Ten titles, not watch from afar as other teams jockeyed for them. He wanted to make wins over Top 25 teams the expectation, not a once-a-year special occasion.

Following Tuesday night’s 70-64 upset over No. 21 Maryland, Chambers and Penn State took a step in the right direction to accomplish these goals.

“It's big for these kids to see that they can beat a Top 25 team,” Chambers said. “It's here. We have all the pieces. It's right there for us, we have to keep going on the right path of getting better. I felt my team had the energy and juice to compete.”

In knocking off the Terrapins, the Nittany Lions (13-12, 5-7 Big Ten) have now beaten Top 25 opponents four straight times at the Bryce Jordan Center.

But this one feels different than the rest of those. Just three days ago, the Nittany Lions laid an egg against last-placed Rutgers in the very building they just beat the Terrapins.

A deflating loss such as that one to the Scarlet Knights could prove to be fatal in the progress a young team like the Nittany Lions hopes to make as the end of the regular season approaches.

Chambers didn’t expect that to happen, though. He was confident his team would respond. And they did.  Penn State looked like a completely different team than the one that was outworked and out hustled by Rutgers.

The loss to the Scarlet Knights may have signaled a step back in the process, but the youthful got over the defeat and responded with a potentially program-altering win.

“I think that just shows the perseverance of this team, you know, Stevens said. “We lost to one of the bottom dwellers in the Big Ten and we turned around and beat one of the top-tier teams. We just got back to work and refocused our rules, and it showed.”

Slowly but surely, at least for now, Penn State is back moving upward on the steps of the ever-competitive Big Ten ladder.

The process started in recruiting. Making a head way in the talent-rich Philadelphia area was priority number one for Chambers.

Getting D.J. Newbill, who played his high school basketball at Strawberry Mansion, to transfer in from Southern Mississippi was big. Signing a player like Shep Garner from Roman Catholic was huge.

A 2015 class that included Mike Watkins out of Phelps School, was followed up with the best recruiting class in program history to date in 2016 that saw the Nittany Lions add Roman Catholic teammates Tony Carr, Lamar Stevens and Nazeer Bostick.

At one point in the second half of the win over the Terrapins, all five players on the floor hailed from Philadelphia (Garner, Carr, Bostick, Stevens and Watkins).

It signaled another step up the ladder, as Chambers’ commitment to getting players from the City of Brotherly Love had been rewarded with a much-needed win against a ranked opponent.

“Just being out there with Philly guys and just having two guys that I went to high school with, my two best friends, and them filling them with Shep and Mike is just perfect for us,” Carr said. “We've just got that Philly chemistry and that Philly toughness, and it's just great to be out there with them.”

The freshmen Roman Catholic trio in particular played a huge part in delivering the win.

Right when it seemed Maryland was going to climb back even, or perhaps take the lead, Carr and Stevens stepped up to ensure that would not happen.

The pair knocked down back-to-back sets of free throws to push Penn State’s lead back to eight and ensured the Nittany Lions of the eventual 70-64 upset win.

It wasn’t just in the closing moments where Carr and Stevens made their marks, though.

Stevens came out firing, scoring five of the Nittany Lions’ first eight points. He continued with the hot hand to open up the second half as well, scoring his team’s first seven points. Stevens finished with 25 points and seven rebounds, a comeback outing of sorts, after fouling out of the team’s loss to Rutgers on Saturday with more than seven minutes to play.

The opening of the second half showcased just how good a player Stevens can become and the variety of ways in which he can score the basketball. The first bucket came from a jumper in the corner with the hand of a defender in his face. The second a putback lay-in that saw him slice his way through the lane to collect the rebound and the third, a powerful slam off an inbounds pass from Carr.

“We needed that tonight,” Chambers said of Stevens’ performance. “We put the ball inside to him and he made some good decisions. He posted up and ran a couple iso's. He did a nice job of playing patient and solid. It's good to have that guy that we can put the ball inside to that's engaged.”

Carr chipped in with 14 points, seven rebounds and three assists. But, the most important contribution for him on the night may have been his defensive effort against one of the better guards in college basketball, Melo Trimble.

Trimble started the game well, notching 10 points in the opening 20 minutes, but was held to a single point in the second half.

Carr’s showing follows Chambers anointing him as one of the team leaders at the team’s media press conference on Monday. Even as a freshmen, Chambers see’s Carr as someone who other players can look to as a game gets tighter and crunch time approaches.

“Tony was great at the last couple of practices at leading since I had a talk with him about it, Chambers said. “Now he has to be consistent with it. Leadership is every day."


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