Dec. 26, 2010
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; Dec. 26, 2010 - The Nittany Lion basketball team (7-4) will look open its 19th season of Big Ten Conference play on Monday, Dec. 27 when Penn State travels to Bloomington, Ind. to take on the Hoosiers in a 6:30 p.m. (ET) tip.
The game will be shown on Big Ten Network and can be heard live on the Penn State Sports Network (1450 AM locally) with Steve Jones and Dick Jerardi.
Penn State will look to end a two-game losing skid as it entered the holiday season with losses at Virginia Tech (79-69) and vs. Maine (74-64). Penn State has won three of its last four Big Ten openers, but fell at Minnesota (75-70) in last season's conference opener. The Nittany Lions will be opening the Big Ten season on the road for the second-straight year. Indiana will be the first of two road games to begin the 2010-11 Big Ten season as Penn State also travels to Michigan on Jan. 2.
The Nittany Lions are 5-13 all-time in Big Ten openers and 4-3 under coach Ed DeChellis. Penn State is 1-15 all-time at Indiana, but won its first-ever game there in its last trip to Bloomington in 2009 downing the Hoosiers 65-55 behind 19 points from Stanley Pringle and 17 from Jamelle Cornley.
Penn State will bring the Big Ten's second-leading scorer into Monday's contest in Talor Battle (20.6 ppg). Battle enters Big Ten play 386 points shy of eclipsing the Nittany Lions' all-time career scoring mark of 2,138 set by Jesse Arnelle in 1955.
The Hoosiers won their first six games to open the season but have gone 3-4 in their last seven games, including a pair of losses to Northern Iowa (67-61) and Colorado (78-69) at the IBN Las Vegas Classic in their last two outings. The Hoosiers lead the Big Ten and are fourth in the country in field goal percentage (51.3 percent) and second in the league in field goal percentage defense (37.7 percent). Sophomore forward Christian Watford (6-8) leads the team scoring 18.3 ppg and pulling down 5.8 rpg. Junior guard Verdell Jones adds 12.3 ppg. The Hoosiers are 9-0 at home on the year.
For all the latest information, notes, pictures and related links on Penn State basketball follow Assistant Athletic Communications Director Brian Siegrist on Twitter (@PSUSTRETCH) and check GoPSUsports.com. The Nittany Lions are also on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pennstatebasketball.
-NITTANY LIONS-