Nov. 26, 2008
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA., Nov. 26, 2008 - The Nittany Lion basketball team is off to its best start since the 1999-2000 season after downing Penn, 85-73, on Tuesday to improve to 5-0 on the year. The 1999-2000 team opened 6-0 before finishing 19-16 and reaching the NIT semifinals.
The Nittany Lions will continue a four-game road swing, their longest since 2001, Friday in Philadelphia as they take on Rhode Island (4-1) at 6:30 p.m. in the Philly Hoop Group Classic at the Palestra. The game can be heard live on the Penn State Sports Network and Gametracker and live audio links are available at GoPSUsports.com.
Penn State downed NJIT (74-47) and Hartford (89-64) in earlier round Classic games held at the Jordan Center. The winner of Friday's match-up will face the winner of a Villanova vs. Towson match-up in Friday night's second game. The losers of the Fridays games will also face off Saturday with games at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. Both Saturday games will be televised on CN8.
Penn State guards Talor Battle and Stanley Pringle continued their outstanding play Tuesday as they combined for 49 points. Pringle posted a career high with 25 points on 5-of-7 three-point shooting and had 18 in the first half as the Nittany Lions took a 49-24 halftime lead on the Quakers. Battle posted 24 on Tuesday, his fourth 20-point game of the season, and stands third in the Big Ten averaging 21.2 points per game. The pair are shooting a combined 63-of-111 (57%) from floor and each have 16 threes to lead the team.
Rhode Island (4-1) has won three straight since dropping a close 82-79 decision at No. 5 Duke in their second game of the season. The Rams got a huge game from leading scorer Jimmy Baron (18.2 ppg) who hit eight threes in that game. Baron is 22-of-39 (56.4%) from three on the season. The Rams have four players averaging double-digits and are shooting better than 50 percent from the floor and 46 percent from three and are posting 85.2 ppg on the year. Rhode Island defeated Hartford (a previous PSU opponent) 94-72 in their last outing led by guard Keith Cothran (17.8 ppg) with 22 points on 9-of-13 shooting for his second straight 20-point game.
Penn State leads the all-time series 11-10, but the teams have net met since 1991.