Penn State men’s basketball holds on to eke out 1-point victory over Rutgers
Penn State snapped its two-game skid Tuesday night with a 65-64 win over the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at the Bryce Jordan Center. The program improved to 21-7 overall with the win and 11-6 in the Big Ten.
The Nittany Lions jumped on the Scarlet Knights early Tuesday evening. They were able to build a 42-24 halftime lead on the back of 6-of-13 3-point shooting and their swarming defense. They only allowed Rutgers to make 31% of its shots in the game’s opening 20 minutes, including zero makes on five attempts from beyond the arc.
Their shooting came from across the rotation with five different players making shots from beyond the arc in the first half.
The Scarlet Knights fought back into the game with a dominant start to the second half. They cut the Penn State lead to one after opening the half on a 26-9 run. The Scarlet Knights hung around from there, battling with the Nittany Lions until the game came to a close. They tied the game at 62 with 1:30 left in the second half, completing the comeback after trailing by as much as 21 in the first half.
A deep two by Rutgers guard Geo Baker with 42.9 gave the Scarlet Knights their first lead of the game, but sophomore guard Myles Dread stepped up big to win the game for Penn State. His 3-pointer with 26.7 second left on the clock proved to be enough to earn the victory.
Redshirt sophomore guard Izaiah Brockington led Penn State in scoring with 16 points in the game. He replaced the scoring lost with sophomore guard Myreon Jones sidelined for the sixth straight game with an illness.
The Nittany Lions and Scarlet Knights split the season series with each other. Each team won its respective home game in the two matchups.
Player of the game
Izaiah Brockington: Senior forward Lamar Stevens wasn’t at his best Tuesday afternoon but fortunately for Penn State, it didn’t matter. Brockington stepped up in a big way to guide the Nittany Lions to victory. His points led the game and allowed his team to earn the win in the end. The sophomore guard was the player Penn State frequently turned to when it needed a shot, and it clearly suffered when he left the game with a leg cramp in the second half. The Nittany Lions were looking for added scoring with Jones out, and Brockington provided exactly that in the win.
Turning point
Myles Dread hits a 3-pointer to win it: Penn State was in desperate need of a bucket out of a timeout with just under 40 seconds left on the clock and a two-point deficit on the scoreboard. The Nittany Lions had missed all eight 3-point attempts in the second half and were struggling to generate easy offense in the game’s final half. That changed with a Myles Dread shot from beyond the arc at the top of the key with 26.9 seconds showing on the clock. Dread sprinted off a John Harrar screen on Akwasi Yeboah to open space. He caught a pass from Brockington and it was over from there. He splashed the shot home and sent the Bryce Jordan Center crowd into a frenzy.
Stat of the Game
Penn State makes 1-of-9 from deep in the second half: The Nittany Lions struggled to get any offense in the second half. They couldn’t find openings in the Rutgers defense and were forced to try several contested shots late in the game. Even when they were open, especially from beyond the arc, the Nittany Lions couldn’t get their shots to fall. That led to 0-of-8 shooting from deep to start the second half. Their poor shooting allowed Rutgers to get back into the game and make it closer than Penn State would’ve liked. Of course, the only make was Dread’s game-winning shot with less than 30 seconds left, so while their shooting doomed them early, it saved the Nittany Lions at the end of the game.
Quotables
Myles Dread on Penn State’s defense on the final possession:
“We didn’t allow (ourselves) to get happy. We wanted to win the game. We knew that the last stop was more important than the shot. So we just buckled down and stuck to our principles defensively.”
Penn State head coach Pat Chambers on Dread’s steadiness:
“He knows that I’m confident in him. He knows the players are confident in him ... As soon as (the game-winning shot) left his hand you knew it was in ... I go back to confidence and knowing (shooting) is his role on this team.”
Up next
Iowa: Penn State will head on the road for its next matchup. The Nittany Lions will take on the Iowa Hawkeyes for the second time this season Saturday afternoon. The Hawkeyes are the No. 22 in the country according to Ken Pomeroy’s KenPom rankings.
Rutgers will travel back to Piscataway for a home matchup with the Maryland Terrapins next Tuesday. The Terrapins are the No. 8 team in the country in KenPom’s rankings.
This story was originally published February 26, 2020 at 10:30 PM.
