Dec. 13, 2008
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA., Dec. 13, 2008 - Penn State equaled its most ever non-conference wins prior to entering the Big Ten season Saturday at the Bryce Jordan Center as sophomore point-guard Talor Battle (Albany, N.Y.) poured in a season-high 26 points to lead the Nittany Lions over Mount St. Mary's, 61-56. It also marked the 1,300th win in Penn State program history.
Penn State improved to 9-2 on the year, with two home non-conference dates remaining, to equal the nine wins (9-4) it took into the 2006-07 Big Ten season. The Mount fell to 3-6 on the year dropping their fourth straight game and fifth of the year by five or fewer points.
Jamelle Cornley (Columbus, Ohio) added 18 points and eight boards for Penn State as the duo of Battle and Cornley combined to score 44 of the teams' 61 points and make 13 of the Lions' 17 field goals. Battle made three treys, marking his eighth game on the season with three or more, and shot 11-of-13 on the foul line to lead a 21-of-27 Penn State effort at the charity stripe. It was the fifth 20-point outing on the season for the Big Ten's second leading scorer. Penn State shot 37 percent from the field (17-46) and produced seven fewer field goals than the Mount, which shot 47 percent (24-51) but was outscored by 17 points at the free throw line.
"Thank goodness we made free throws," Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said. " Last week we couldn't make free throws. It's very unusual (to only have 17 field goals), but we have to make the free throws and we did a good job with that. I think Jamelle did a good job with that down the stretch. When the free throws meant something, we knocked them down. We were pretty happy with that."
The Mount were led by Shawn Atupem's 12 points, most coming in the paint and contributing to a 32-16 scoring edge for the Mount in the lane. Jeremy Goode and Jean Cajou scored 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Stanley Pringle started the game after sitting out the Army contest with an ankle sprain suffered against Temple. His early three gave Penn State it's first lead of the game, 6-5, four minutes in, but still limited by the ankle he scored eight points and shot 2-of-9 from the floor in 25 minutes.
"It's tough," DeChellis said of Pringle's play. "When you sit out all week and start to practice yesterday, it's not going to be sharp. I don't think anybody besides Cornley and Battle gave us a whole lot offensively and that's something we have to look over during the break and make sure we are trying to get everyone involved again because we `re going to need three or four guys to score points. We've got to get back to that."
Battle hit his second consecutive early three to extend a 10-0 run and the Penn State lead to 12-5 with 15:00 remaining in the half.
The run was snapped by an Atupem lay-up with 13:42 to go. The Mount went on a 6-0 run midway through the half, sparked by a Cajou jumper in the paint with 9:30 remaining to close within three, 19-16, with 6:43 to play
Jamelle Cornley stopped the bleeding with a short jumper from the baseline to bring Penn State's lead back to five, 21-16. However, Mount St. Mary's responded on the other end with another Atupem lay-up. Lay-ups by Goode and Will Holland extended the Mount's run to 12-2 and gave them the lead, 22-21, with 3:19 to play in the half. Penn State scored the last five points of the half, the last three by Battle who had 12 at the break, to lead 26-22 at the half. Penn State's 26 points in the half marked the third straight game they have scored 30 or less points at the half.
The Mount came out firing early in the second half with a three by Cajou and a lay-up by Kelly Beidler sparking a 5-0 run that gave them the lead and forced a Penn State timeout just 49 seconds into the second 20 minutes.
Cornley responded to the run with a three from the top of the key to give Penn State a 29-27 lead.
After trading baskets for six minutes, Danny Morrissey hit two free throws to give Penn State a five-point lead, 40-35 with 12:47 remaining.
Following a free throw by Mount St. Mary's, Battle drove baseline for a lay-up to extend the Lions' lead to six, 42-36. Battle continued to be aggressive as he forced a foul and connected on both free throws to give Penn State a 44-36 lead and cap a 6-0 run with 10:46 to go in the game.
Penn State extended the margin to double-digits, 48-38, after a pair of Battle free throws with 8:49 to play and completed another 6-0 run with a fast-break pass from Pringle to Battle for the lay-up to extended the lead to twelve, 50-38.
Penn State led by as many as 13 with 4:47 to play, but the Mount went on a furious 11-3 run to get back within three, 57-54, with 51 seconds to play. Goode hit a three and later a foul shot and Atupem had four points in the spurt.
Cornley restored order getting free on a baseline screen for an easy lay-up with 20 seconds remaining to make it a two-possession game, 59-54. A couple free throws with nine seconds to go by Battle sealed the deal for the Lions.
Penn State will take a week of for final exams before returning to the Jordan Center on Sunday, Dec. 21 for a 4:00 p.m. match-up with Lafayette.