Jan. 26, 2009
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA., Jan. 26, 2009 - Senior forward Jamelle Cornley said it wasn't heroic, just what a senior is supposed to do, but the Big Ten Conference said otherwise Monday honoring him with his first career Big Ten Player of the Week award after he scored 10 straight points in the final five minutes and a game-high 24 on the night to lead the Nittany Lions to a come-from-behind, 63-59, victory over Iowa on Saturday.
Cornley spearheaded two Penn State victories over conference foes last week as he helped the Nittany Lions improve to 16-5 on the season and 5-3 in the conference, Penn State's best Big Ten start since 1996. In Tuesday's 73-58 victory over Michigan, the 6-5 forward posted his 11th career double-double grabbing 11 boards and netting17 points on 8-of-10 (.800) shooting. Cornley followed that up by posting 24 points and six boards while playing all 40 minutes to help Penn State rally from a 13-point deficit with eight minutes to play to a victory over Iowa. The Columbus, Ohio native was dominating in the paint in both games shooting a combined 19-of-27 (.700) on an array of post moves. He scored 10 straight points, including a three-pointer, in the final five minutes of the victory over Iowa to bring Penn State to within two.
On the week, Cornley recorded his 75th career double-figure scoring game and jumped into eighth all-time in career scoring at Penn State tying Titus Ivory with 1,369 points. With 664 rebounds, he is on pace to join just Jesse Arnelle and Geary Claxton among Nittany Lions that have posted 1,500 points and 700 rebounds on their careers and could finish among the top five scorers all-time at Penn State.
Cornley garnered the second weekly conference honor for Penn State on the season joining sophomore point-guard Talor Battle who was honored on Nov. 24. Cornley shares the weekly award with Northwestern's Kevin Coble who averaged 26 points per game in two games for the the Wildcats and led Northwestern to a milestone win over No. 7 Michigan State on Wednesday. The junior Wildcat posted the top individual performance in a conference game this season, tying a Big Ten season high with 31 points in Northwestern's victory over the Spartans.
Penn State gets seven days off before returning to action at Michigan State on Feb. 1. That game will air on the Big Ten Network and is set for a 12:00 p.m. tip.