Nittany Lions Flummox Visiting Hoosiers En Route to 64-49 Win

Looking at Penn State’s box score, Indiana head coach Archie Miller didn’t see much of a problem Wednesday night.

Meeting the Nittany Lions at the Bryce Jordan Center, his Hoosiers playing their third game in seven days against a Penn State squad well-rested after a bye weekend, the hosts’ numbers weren’t spectacular. Holding the Nittany Lions below their shooting percentages, that Penn State emerged with a 64-49 blowout win didn’t immediately connect all of the dots.

“They played hard. Very tough-minded group. Defensively inside tonight, I thought they played really forcefully. I thought Lamar and Mike really commanded a lot of attention, drew a lot of fouls, unnecessary fouls sometimes,” Miller said. “You look at the shooting percentages at home, you would think you'd have a chance to hang in there, but offensively we were bad.”

For Penn State head coach Patrick Chambers, this was very much by design.

Playing with the benefit of fresh legs, a disjointed first half that saw the two teams knotted at 28-28 transformed into a defensive clinic on the behalf of the hosts. With Jamari Wheeler starring in his role as a constant irritant to opposing point guards, the Nittany Lions (15-5 overall, 5-4 Big Ten) produced one of their best defensive efforts of the season, highlighted by 15 steals and 18 turnovers by the Hoosiers.

By the time the final buzzer sounded, the Hoosiers (15-6, 5-5) had each of their nine players to enter the game commit at least one turnover. And Penn State capitalized on it, finishing with 21 points off turnovers to Indiana’s 6, most notably owning a 15-2 advantage in the category in the second half.

“It was just really about our foundation. That's what Penn State basketball is,” Chambers said. “We're supposed to defend and rebound. We're supposed to play hard. We're supposed to be jumping to the ball and communicating. When we're loud and communicating, we're just building so much trust out there that guys are in the right spots. And then their anticipation, because they have a clear head, the anticipation out there to have 15 steals is pretty remarkable because we haven't had that many steals in a while.”

Extending their lead to as many as 20 points in the game’s final minutes, the Nittany Lions didn’t necessarily need all of them, but they created an unmistakable differentiator on an otherwise off night shooting.

Held to just 37.5 percent shooting from the floor and a 5-of-18 clip from beyond-the-arc, with senior forward Lamar Stevens knocking down just 7 of 21 shots from the floor and an uncharacteristic 3 of 8 from the free-throw line (later explained as a byproduct of cold symptoms), the Nittany Lions turned to pure hustle. Stevens’ health didn’t prevent him from surpassing two milestones in the win, moving into third place in school history for career scoring (1,994, surpassing Joe Crispin) and making his 800th career rebound on a night he finished with nine.

Complementing Stevens’ game-high scoring with 12 off the bench, former Indiana transfer guard Curtis Jones helped give the Nittany Lions a 31-11 advantage off the bench alongside key contributions from Myles Dread (9) and Mike Watkins (8).

“The fact that they didn't allow missing shots affect their effort on the defensive end is something that I'm going to praise and focus on. Because that, to me, is everything,” Chambers said. “And the fact that we rebounded tonight. They're one of the best rebounding teams, not only in the country, I think there were top seven in KenPom, but number one or two in the Big Ten. So for us to be able to defend and rebound, without fouling, for the most part, I think is critical.”

Reiterating that his Nittany Lions still have the potential to play much better than what they’ve shown of late, including its most recent three-game winning streak, Chambers expressed his confidence that the ingredients for more success are present in the Nittany Lions’ locker room.

“It's our players. They're bought in. There's great leadership, there's great connectivity in the locker room, a real family atmosphere. There's a lot of love and trust in there,” Chambers said. “And I think that's been the difference. We took a couple of speed bumps there. And then we came out of it nicely. But look, we're in the Big Ten. A lot of basketball to be played. We gotta take it one game at a time and we're going to a really difficult road arena on Saturday night.”

The Nittany Lions return to action when they travel to face Nebraska (7 p.m., BTN) in Lincoln Saturday.

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