Penn State produces commanding road win at Michigan, 72-63

In three of its five losses this season, all away from the Bryce Jordan Center, the Penn State men’s basketball team went into the halftime locker room holding onto a lead.

Wednesday evening in Ann Arbor, the same was true, but the trending results were upended.

Led by a hot-shooting start, a stifling defensive effort that flustered their opponent all night, and a huge second-half contribution from Curtis Jones off the bench, the Nittany Lions earned a 72-63 win at Michigan. With the win, the Nittany Lions returned to .500 in the Big Ten (4-4) and improved to 14-5 on the season.

And according to head coach Patrick Chambers, in responding to a three-game skid spanning eight days earlier this month, his Nittany Lions demonstrated a mental fortitude in the process.

“Our team really had great belief headed into Ohio State and then tonight. I think that's 75-80 percent of the battle is believing in what you do, believing in one another, playing for each other, and being great teammates. And I feel like we did that tonight,” Chambers said. “We defended really well. We gave up some offensive rebounds there in the second half, but for the most part, we got timely ones.”

From the opening tip, the Nittany Lions produced a stronger performance than Michigan (11-7, 2-5) at the Crisler Center.

Jumping out to a 9-2 lead with a 4-4 start shooting from the floor, the Nittany Lions fell silent as the Wolverines clawed back to even the score at 15-15 on a Zavier Simpson layup amid an 11-0 Michigan run. Never falling behind by more than 5 points, though, the Nittany Lions used a Myles Dread 3-pointer and Mike Watkins bucket to lock the score up during their own 14-0 run.

Building a 30-21 lead in the process, the two teams traded jabs the rest of the half but ultimately, the Nittany Lions returned to the locker room holding onto a 37-28 advantage.

This time, they wouldn’t relinquish it.

Retaking the floor to produce their biggest advantage to that point in the game on a Myreon Jones 3-pointer, 44-31, the Nittany Lions forced a quick timeout from the Wolverines. Having to withstand an 8-0 Michigan run built on the back of four consecutive trips to the free-throw line for the Wolverines, Penn State’s lead dipped to 44-39 when Simpson sent home a jumper with 13:45 to play.

The Wolverines wouldn’t get any closer. Stanched by a pair of Lamar Stevens free throws, Penn State’s biggest second-half performance soon arrived off the bench in the form of graduate transfer guard Curtis Jones. Hitting the first of three-straight 3-pointers, plus an uncontested layup, Jones single-handedly built Penn State’s lead back to 12 points and, eventually, extended it to 15 at 60-45 with 7:06 left to play thanks to his dazzling offensive display.

“I talked to Curtis before I put him in and said, 'You know, these moments are made for seniors, and it's your time,’ because I didn't play him that much in the first half,” Chambers said. “And he really stepped up in a big way when they started making their run.”

Though Michigan wouldn’t completely go away, generating a 12-2 run in just three minutes, another scoring spark from Jones, including an and-one sending the two teams into the under-four media timeout, effectively sealed the Nittany Lions’ advantage.

With the win, Penn State returned to the middle of a crowded league race that currently has nine teams with four-or-more wins, none more than two games back of Big Ten leader Michigan State (14-4, 6-1). Leading into a week-long break in which the Nittany Lions won’t return to action until they host Indiana next Wednesday, Chambers noted his conflicted feelings about the timing of his team’s bye week.

“We get a week off here and I'm almost disappointed that we have a week off here. I think we're starting to play our best basketball heading into February. And then we have some time off,” Chambers said. “Now we do have some guys bumped and bruised. So guys are really nicked up, so it is a good time for that.

“It’s really about that mental fitness because these guys are thoroughbreds, physically, they're thoroughbreds. So it's about the five inches or six inches between the ears that we really got to manage. And you're trying to do that. Hey, we lost three games in a row. So that's what it was all about.”

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