3 takeaways from Penn State basketball’s 88-76 win over Purdue
Penn State stayed hot Tuesday night in West Lafayette on its way to an 88-76 road victory over the Purdue Boilermakers. The win improves the Nittany Lions to 19-5 overall and 9-4 in the Big Ten.
Here are three takeaways from yet another big Penn State victory on the road.
1. Penn State was scorching hot
The Nittany Lions may not have a better shooting game than the one they did Tuesday night for a long time. They made 14-of-26 3-point attempts to make a comeback nearly impossible for Purdue. Their first five made shots of the game came from beyond the arc and established how well the Nittany Lions would shoot the rest of the way.
The performance is an outlier but it also shows what Penn State’s best shooters are capable of.
Freshman wing Seth Lundy and sophomore guard Myles Dread were on fire from beyond the arc and did most of the team’s damage from deep. Lundy made 6-of-9 from deep and Dread made 4-of-5 from 3-point range to account for 30 of the team’s 42 points from distance.
Both players are important to Penn State’s success and nights like Tuesday show how good the team can be when they’re at their best.
2. Mike Watkins is still capable of dominating
Redshirt senior center Mike Watkins has had plenty of ups and downs this season but when he’s at his best, like he was Tuesday night, he’s a dominant offensive big.
Watkins was efficient from the floor, hitting 9-of-12 looks with all nine made shots coming around the rim on his way to 19 points to lead the team. He helped get Purdue sophomore center Trevion Williams into foul trouble in the first half and early in the second half to make playing defense more difficult.
The redshirt senior didn’t stuff the stat sheet defensively, but he was good enough to be a deterrent on that end of the floor. His presence and reputation as a rim protector can prevent teams from attacking the rim as aggressively as they usually would. Watkins doesn’t have to be the best big man in the Big Ten, but he showed Tuesday he can do plenty of damage when he’s locked in.
3. A Big Ten title is well within reach
Penn State’s win over Michigan State last Tuesday gave the team a chance to win the Big Ten. This win over Purdue makes the Nittany Lions one of the favorites to win the conference. Their 9-4 record puts them one game back of first place with four of their final seven games at home and a big advantage over the first-place team.
Penn State has already played first-place Maryland and beat the Terrapins at home in December. That’s the only matchup the two teams will have and the win gives Penn State the tiebreaker advantage if both teams finish with the same conference record.
There’s plenty of time left and plenty of games yet to be played, but Penn State has as good of a shot at the Big Ten title as any other team.
This story was originally published February 12, 2020 at 3:37 AM.
