One week after upset win, Penn State returns to action at Nebraska

After Penn State snapped a four-game losing streak last Saturday, Brandon Taylor’s focus turned to starting a winning streak.

He said the Nittany Lions were excited to knock off then-No. 22 Indiana. But he also said they were going to get back to work to try to achieve that goal of stringing together some basketball wins.

Moments earlier, teammate Devin Foster said the victory could serve as a source of energy for Penn State.

“We just got to build on it,” Foster said after the 68-63 win over the Hoosiers.

Penn State (12-12, 3-8 Big Ten) will aim to do that when it takes on Nebraska (13-12, 5-7) at Pinnacle Bank Arena at 6 p.m. Saturday. The Nittany Lions are looking to win back-to-back games for the first time since beating Louisiana-Monroe and Drexel in December as part of a season-long three-game winning streak.

Penn State’s four-game slide heading into the matchup with Indiana was its longest of the season.

The Nittany Lions suffered losses to Wisconsin, Ohio State, Michigan and Iowa.

They fell 73-49 to the then-No. 5 Hawkeyes three days before hosting the Hoosiers. Taylor said the team lost “a little bit of our confidence” in the blowout loss.

But he said it didn’t affect the Nittany Lions’ work ethic.

They were back in the gym, ready to work, getting up shots after the loss. The senior believes that mentality paid off during Penn State’s upset victory — the program’s first win over a ranked opponent since beating No. 22 Ohio State in late February 2014.

“Not giving up is the reason why we come out of this game with a ‘W,’” Taylor said after scoring 24 points to lead his team past the Hoosiers. “We could have put our heads down, we could have ran away, but we stuck our necks out there and we continued to work and we continued to watch film and get shots up.”

Penn State coach Patrick Chambers was pleased with his team’s effort in the win.

The Nittany Lions held Indiana 22 points below its season average and owned the lead for nearly half the game.

“I thought that was the first time all year that we played a 40-minute game,” Chambers said. “We competed. We were all over the floor.”

The Nittany Lions will now take on a Nebraska team that has lost four of its last five games — with its lone win over Rutgers (6-18, 0-11).

The Huskers are led by Andrew White III. The 6-foot-7 junior is the team’s top scorer (16.9 points per game) and rebounder (6.2 rebounds per game). He’s also knocked down a team-high 63 3-pointers on 41.4 percent shooting from long range.

Nebraska’s Shavon Shields “hasn’t been cleared to resume physical activity” after suffering a concussion and neck strain against Rutgers last Saturday, according to a report by the Omaha World-Herald on Friday. Shields is second on the team in scoring with 15.7 points per game and did not play against Wisconsin on Wednesday. The 6-foot-7 senior had started 106 straight games.

Nebraska is averaging 73.8 points per game while giving up 68.7 this season.

This story was originally published February 12, 2016 at 6:50 PM with the headline "One week after upset win, Penn State returns to action at Nebraska."