Dec. 23, 2007
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA., Dec. 23, 2007 - The Nittany Lion basketball team will go home for the Holidays riding a 7-0 start at home after dropping Colgate, 66-48, Sunday in the Bryce Jordan Center. Penn State, 7-4 on the season, equaled its best home start since the 1998-99 season and will now get a three-day holiday break before beginning preparations for their final non-conference home game of the season vs. Lehigh on Dec. 31.
Penn State notched its fourth-straight win and third in a row by more than 18 points while Colgate fell to 6-5 on the year playing its fifth game among six straight on the road. Senior Geary Claxton (West Haven, Conn.) led Penn State with 14 points and added five rebounds, three assists and a pair of highlight reel dunks. Claxton moved into fifth all-time in scoring at Penn State with 1,465 points to surpass Tom Hovasse (1986-89).
Jamelle Cornley (Columbus, Ohio) posted 12 points, 10 in the first half, eight rebounds and a pair each in the assist, block and steal column. Freshman Jeff Brooks (Louisville, Ky.) had a career-best game scoring 10 points on 4-of-4 shooting and 2-of-2 from three in just 12 minutes.
Colgate did not have a player in double-digits, but was led by the Chones brothers, Kendall and Kyle. Kendall had nine points and four rebounds, while Kyle had eight points and nine boards.
Both teams showed the rust of the holiday season and struggled shooting the ball. Penn State hit 24-of-63 for 38 percent and was 6-of-18 from three, while Colgate went 20-of-57 for 35 percent and 4-of-14 from three. The Nittany Lions won the rebounding battle 42-34 and helped cause 19 Colgate turnovers with nine steals. Penn State's bench played big scoring half of the Nittany Lions 66 points. Nine Nittany Lions scored and 10 played more than 10 minutes for just the second time ever under coach Ed DeChellis.
"I thought when they cut the lead to seven or eight our team responded, which was very positive," DeChellis said. "I thought our bench was very positive today. D.J. Jackson hit a couple of big baskets. Stanley (Pringle) had good minutes off the bench, and Jeff (Brooks) did some real good things. I'm not sure if in the years past we would have had that.
"I'd really like to congratulate the staff. I think they did a tremendous job getting the guys ready," continued DeChellis who spent much of the last week in Pittsburgh with his ailing mother and family. "I came in late last night. It's been challenging because you worry about what's going on here, and everyday I talked with the kids about what happened in practice, what went on and tried to stay in contact the best I could. I heard from Danny (Earl) and Hilliary (Scott) that they practiced well the past few days and had great spirit and great enthusiasm, and I really appreciate that. I came into shooting practice today and I think they were surprised to see me because I wasn't really planning on being here. Things kind of stabilized at home with my mother, so I was able to leave late last night and then I'm going to leave right now and drive right back."
Cornley had seven of Penn State's first 11 points, including his third career three-pointer.
"He's just a strong man and that's somebody that we have to look up to as a head coach," Cornley said of DeChellis. "It takes a lot to make sacrifices like that but that's how he is and that's why we respect him."
Talor Battle (Albany, N.Y.) pulled one of his career high six rebounds and fed Claxton for a dunk to give Penn State a quick 11-4 lead. Penn State pushed the margin to 13 with 11:58 to play as Colgate managed just four points in the first eight minutes as the Raiders committed three turnovers and went two of their first 11.
A Brandon Hassell (Farmersville, Ohio) tip in of a missed Battle lay-up attempt gave Penn State its biggest lead of the half at 25-9 with 7:17 to play. A Battle steal and assist to Claxton for a tomahawk jam made the lead 15, 29-14, with 3:32 to play, but Colgate outscored the Lions 6-1 in the final three minutes and went to the locker room only down 10, 30-20, following a last second put-back by Alex Woodhouse.
Colgate continued their momentum out of the locker room twice cutting the lead to five points while out-scoring Penn State 10-5 in the first five minutes of the half. Kendall Chones lay-up with 15:10 to play made the score 35-30 in favor the Nittany Lions and it looked like they might have a game on their hands.
A Pringle lay-up started a 14-4 run by the Lions over the next 7:30 as Penn State restaked control of the game. Mike Walker (Lewisberry, Pa.) had a pair of big threes in the run, his second with 7:34 to play giving Penn State a 51-34 lead.
A pair of Colgate buckets briefly cut the lead back to 13, but Penn State used a 12-5 run to put the game on ice. Seven points from Brooks, including his first career three with 2:16 to play that gave Penn State a 20-point lead, 63-43, fueled the spurt. Brooks would add another three with nine seconds to play for good measure as Penn State headed to the holidays with momentum and strong contributions from numerous players.
Penn State will have a week off before returning to action Monday, Dec. 31st with a 1:00 p.m. tip against Lehigh in the Bryce Jordan Center.