The Penn State Nittany Lions continue to play their best basketball at the right time. On Thursday night, Mike Rhoades' Nittany Lions took care of business at home defeating the Iowa Hawkeyes 89-79.
The win is the Nittany Lions' third-straight Quadrant 2 win of the season, moving their record to 4-4 against Q2 this season. The win moves the Nittany Lions to 12-11 on the season including 6-6 in Big Ten play. They're also now 10-3 on the road this season.
In the win Ace Baldwin had another terrific performance with 22 points and six assists. He was 5-of-7 from the field for the game including 3-for-4 from three-point range. The VCU transfer was also perfect from the free-throw line, going 9-for-9 on the evening.
As a whole, the Nittany Lions shot 52% from the field including 12-of-23 from deep. They also were 25-of-31 from the free throw line a large advantage over Iowa's 9-for-10 on the evening.
D'Marco Dunn,m Qudus Wahab, and Zach Hicks all finished with double-digit scoring efforts as well with 12, 14, and 14 points respectively.
It was a fast start for both teams on Thursday night as both teams were hot from the floor, Iowa making nine of their first 12 attempts while Penn State started off by making eighth of their first 13 shots. By the 10:00 minute mark of the first half, the Nittany Lions held a 23-21 advantage.
Both teams would cool off from their hot start following the first 10 minutes but Penn State would still be able to extend their lead, taking a 42-34 lead into the break.
In the second half, both teams would find their shooting groove once again, especially the Hawkeyes who made 19-of-29 second half attempts. However, the Nittany Lions shot very well themselves, making 13-of-25 attempts from the field.
Despite the Hawkeyes strong shooting, Penn State was still able to maintain their lead throughout the season half thanks to 17 second half free-throw attempts, making 15-of-17 tries from the charity stripe including each of their last 10 attempts in the game to help seal the win.
UP NEXT
The Nittany Lions will look for their first Quadrant 1 win of the season on Sunday as they hit the road again to take on the Northwestern Wildcats at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston. The Wildcats are 16-7 this season and have been nearly unbeatable at home winning 12 of 13 games.
The Nittany Lions narrowly fell to Northwestern last month at the Bryce Jordan Center 76-72.
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