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Penn State gets first Big Ten win of the season

01/24/2015, 9:00pm EST
By Anna Pitingolo

Anna Pitingolo (@anna_pitingolo)
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It took 24 days for Penn State to get into the Big Ten win column, but the Nittany Lions were finally able to make their way into it with a dominant 79-51 win over Rutgers on Saturday in University Park.

The Nittany Lions looked nothing like the team that went 15-for-52 (28.8 percent) from the field in their last outing against Rutgers, a game that they eventually lost 50-46 in Piscataway earlier this month. This time around, they finished 29-for-57 (50.9 percent) to go along with 10 3-pointers.

While Rutgers had the upper hand to start the game, the second half was all Penn State (13-7, 1-6). The Nittany Lions came out of the break on an 11-2 run that included back-to-back 3-pointers from Brandon Taylor and Shep Garner.

Nothing that Rutgers (10-11, 2-6) was doing could stop Penn State in the second frame. The Nittany Lions finished with three players in double figures, led by 23 from senior guard D.J. Newbill.

“They’ve been in ball games and tonight they won one,” said Rutgers head coach Eddie Jordan. “We watched the Michigan State game, and they were in the game. They’re in a game against Michigan State, that’s a heck of a thing, that’s a good ball club. So when they faced us, (head coach) Pat (Chambers) kept them focused, kept them enthusiastic. Pat got them in the right frame of mind and they came out like gangbusters.”

Penn State finished with 21 points off of turnovers thanks to eight steals. Geno Thorpe had a game-high three steals, followed by two each from Newbill and Donovon Jack. Garner also tacked on a steal in the second half.

“It was definitely a good feeling to finally put together a 40 minute game,” Newbill said. “I think we played together, we played smart, we played physical, we played Penn State basketball for 40 minutes, which we haven’t done all year till today.”

Playing a full 40 minutes is something that Pat Chambers has been stressing all season, so the fourth year head coach was happy to see it finally come to fruition.

“I just felt like the last four games were so close,” Chambers said. “I don’t think we played great against Michigan but I thought Indiana I saw some really good signs, Purdue obviously, Michigan State I thought we were really close to getting the 40 minutes and we finally got there.”

Thorpe had a team-high five assists, leading the Nittany Lions to a season-high of 18 assists.

Taylor left the game with 9:45 left to go with what appeared to be a knee injury. He finished with 16 points, well above the 9.5 ppg he was averaging in the last two games. Taylor also had six rebounds to lead the Nittany Lions in just 26 minutes of play.

Rutgers was without sophomore forward Junior Etou, who, it was announced before the game, did not make the trip for failure to meet team expectations. Etou was averaging 6.8 rebounds a game prior to sitting out on Saturday.

“Obviously (today) without Junior, that hurt them a little bit but they still played hard,” Chambers said. “But for us, mentally it just shows us we can do this, we can be successful, but we got to continue to work on the little things.”

The Nittany Lions started the game with their first 12 points coming from 3-pointers. They finished with 21 of their 41 first half points coming from behind the arc (7-for-12, 58.3 percent).

Jack hit his first 3-pointer of the season, followed by threes from Payton Banks, Taylor and Newbill. The Nittany Lions didn’t hit a field goal until almost 10 minutes into the game when Taylor hit a jumper to bring the game to within one.

The Lions used a 14-4 run with eight minutes left in the half to jump out to a 26-19 lead, a lead that they held on to for the remainder of the game.

“A lot of times we get leads and let teams come back,” Newbill said. “Now we’re trying to learn how to finish them, keep our foot on the pedal and keep playing hard.”

Penn State forced eight turnovers from the Scarlet Knights in the first half, including four steals, three of which came from Thorpe. Newbill had the other steal, a beautiful grab that he passed off to Thorpe, who missed the layup, but Newbill came in and tipped it in for the bucket.

Newbill now has 12 20-point games this season, the most among major-conference players.

Kadeem Jack was the only Rutgers scorer to reach double digits, finishing with 19 points along with three rebounds.

Penn State will look to make it two consecutive Big Ten wins when the Nittany Lions host the Golden Gophers of Minnesota on Wednesday. Tip is set for 7 p.m.

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Anna Pitingolo (@anna_pitingolo)
–

It took 24 days for Penn State to get into the Big Ten win column, but the Nittany Lions were finally able to make their way into it with a dominant 79-51 win over Rutgers on Saturday in University Park.

The Nittany Lions looked nothing like the team that went 15-for-52 (28.8 percent) from the field in their last outing against Rutgers, a game that they eventually lost 50-46 in Piscataway earlier this month. This time around, they finished 29-for-57 (50.9 percent) to go along with 10 3-pointers.

While Rutgers had the upper hand to start the game, the second half was all Penn State (13-7, 1-6). The Nittany Lions came out of the break on an 11-2 run that included back-to-back 3-pointers from Brandon Taylor and Shep Garner.

Nothing that Rutgers (10-11, 2-6) was doing could stop Penn State in the second frame. The Nittany Lions finished with three players in double figures, led by 23 from senior guard D.J. Newbill.

“They’ve been in ball games and tonight they won one,” said Rutgers head coach Eddie Jordan. “We watched the Michigan State game, and they were in the game. They’re in a game against Michigan State, that’s a heck of a thing, that’s a good ball club. So when they faced us, (head coach) Pat (Chambers) kept them focused, kept them enthusiastic. Pat got them in the right frame of mind and they came out like gangbusters.”

Penn State finished with 21 points off of turnovers thanks to eight steals. Geno Thorpe had a game-high three steals, followed by two each from Newbill and Donovon Jack. Garner also tacked on a steal in the second half.

“It was definitely a good feeling to finally put together a 40 minute game,” Newbill said. “I think we played together, we played smart, we played physical, we played Penn State basketball for 40 minutes, which we haven’t done all year till today.”

Playing a full 40 minutes is something that Pat Chambers has been stressing all season, so the fourth year head coach was happy to see it finally come to fruition.

“I just felt like the last four games were so close,” Chambers said. “I don’t think we played great against Michigan but I thought Indiana I saw some really good signs, Purdue obviously, Michigan State I thought we were really close to getting the 40 minutes and we finally got there.”

Thorpe had a team-high five assists, leading the Nittany Lions to a season-high of 18 assists.

Taylor left the game with 9:45 left to go with what appeared to be a knee injury. He finished with 16 points, well above the 9.5 ppg he was averaging in the last two games. Taylor also had six rebounds to lead the Nittany Lions in just 26 minutes of play.

Rutgers was without sophomore forward Junior Etou, who, it was announced before the game, did not make the trip for failure to meet team expectations. Etou was averaging 6.8 rebounds a game prior to sitting out on Saturday.

“Obviously (today) without Junior, that hurt them a little bit but they still played hard,” Chambers said. “But for us, mentally it just shows us we can do this, we can be successful, but we got to continue to work on the little things.”

The Nittany Lions started the game with their first 12 points coming from 3-pointers. They finished with 21 of their 41 first half points coming from behind the arc (7-for-12, 58.3 percent).

Jack hit his first 3-pointer of the season, followed by threes from Payton Banks, Taylor and Newbill. The Nittany Lions didn’t hit a field goal until almost 10 minutes into the game when Taylor hit a jumper to bring the game to within one.

The Lions used a 14-4 run with eight minutes left in the half to jump out to a 26-19 lead, a lead that they held on to for the remainder of the game.

“A lot of times we get leads and let teams come back,” Newbill said. “Now we’re trying to learn how to finish them, keep our foot on the pedal and keep playing hard.”

Penn State forced eight turnovers from the Scarlet Knights in the first half, including four steals, three of which came from Thorpe. Newbill had the other steal, a beautiful grab that he passed off to Thorpe, who missed the layup, but Newbill came in and tipped it in for the bucket.

Newbill now has 12 20-point games this season, the most among major-conference players.

Kadeem Jack was the only Rutgers scorer to reach double digits, finishing with 19 points along with three rebounds.

Penn State will look to make it two consecutive Big Ten wins when the Nittany Lions host the Golden Gophers of Minnesota on Wednesday. Tip is set for 7 p.m.

Recruiting News:

View All |

HS Coverage:

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Tag(s): Contributors  Anna Pitingolo