Jan. 25, 2015
By Matt Allibone, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- After knocking on the Big Ten door the past six games, the Penn State men's basketball team emphatically kicked it down Saturday afternoon against Rutgers.
Looking for their first conference victory, the Nittany Lions were sharp in every aspect, beating the Scarlet Knights 79-51 for their largest margin of victory in a home Big Ten game since 1998 to get in the win column in the Big Ten.
From shooting percentage to rebounding to turnover margin, Penn State outclassed Rutgers in nearly every statistical category. More importantly though, the Lions kept their energy up for the entire 40 minutes in a contest in which they led for the final 29:41.
"I think that we played together, we played smart, we played physical, we played Penn State basketball for 40 minutes which we hadn't done all year until today," senior guard D.J. Newbill said. "It's growth, a lot of times we get leads and we let teams come back. Now we have to learn how to finish them, keep the pedal to the metal and keep playing hard."
After falling behind 6-0 three minutes in, Penn State started to heat up, scoring 12 points in a span of 2:47 off of four 3-pointers. It was a sign of things to come for the Nittany Lions.
For the rest of the game, the Lions' shooting stroke simply never wore off, as they hit 51 percent of shots from the field and a remarkable 50 percent from behind the arc. Overall, it was the team's third highest shooting performance of the year from the field and second highest from three.
Making it more impressive was the fact that nine players tallied points with six of them (Newbill, Payton Banks, Shep Garner, Donovon Jack, Brandon Taylor and Geno Thorpe) hitting at least one 3-pointer. The Lions finished the afternoon with three players, Newbill (23), Taylor (16) and Garner (13), scoring in double figures.
"A lot of guys have been putting in extra work, working on their shot, getting extra reps individually and as a team," Newbill, said. "I think today we came out really confident, we were getting some good looks and we were taking them with confidence, just sticking it."
The Lions attempted 20 3-pointers (10-20) on the afternoon, their ninth game of the season taking at least 20 triples. Although they entered the game shooting 31 percent from that distance, head coach Patrick Chambers encouraged his players to keep shooting.
Having watched his team shoot 54 percent from the field on the road against the Big Ten's top team in Wisconsin, Chambers knew his players had it in them. All that they needed was to remain confident.
"Look, your offense always looks good when the ball is going in the basket," Chambers said. "It just went in a little more often today then the past few games. I hear the criticism, `you can't take those deep threes, why you shooting so many threes.' It's the only way we're going to be successful. If I'm going to pull these kids back, I don't think it's fair to them and they're not going to play with the upmost confidence."
At the same time, the way the Lions shot the ball wasn't the only notable thing about their performance. Defensively, they were on point all afternoon, holding Rutgers to 51 points and just 23 after halftime, while forcing 16 turnovers that led to 21 of their points.
After coming up just short the previous five games (losing each of them by fewer than 10 points), Penn State made it clear it wasn't going to let this one slip away. Going into the break up 41-28, the Lions started the second half on fire, going on an 11-2 run in just 1:52 that seemed to take the life out of the Scarlet Knights.
"I wanted to win the second half," Chambers said. "I didn't tell them it like that, it was more, `win the next possession,' and we put enough possessions together to win."
It's been a tough first month of conference play for Penn State, with a lot of close loses and near misses. Though Chambers and his squad are certainly going to enjoy this victory, they know there is still plenty of work to be done.
With 11 conference games remaining, including a matchup against Minnesota this Wednesday at home, the Lions will look to continue to establish momentum as each game becomes more critical.
"For us mentally, it just shows us, we can do this, we can be successful," Chambers said. "And we've got to continue to work on the little things, we're starting to shoot the ball a lot better. It was about stops and rebounding, and I think we got back to our foundation."