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Feb. 07, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (AP) - Geno Thorpe scored 14 points, Brandon Taylor and D.J. Newbill had 11 as Penn State was able to take advantage of Nebraska's cold shooting to beat the Huskers 56-43 on Saturday.
The teams combined for just 35 first-half points before picking up the pace in the second half. Nebraska shot 15 of 51 from the field and just 2 of 20 from 3-point range.
Nebraska (13-10, 5-6 Big Ten) trailed by as many as 11 points late in the game but closed to within 44-41 before Penn State (15-9, 3-8) pulled away with just over 3 minutes to play.
Shep Garner's 3-pointer, Thorpe's steal and layup and the same combination from D.J. Newbill gave the Lions a 55-43 lead with 34 seconds to play.
Nebraska, led by 13 points from Terran Petteway and 12 from Shavon Shields, has yet to win a road game in conference play.
Newbill added 11 points for Penn State and moved to fourth place on Penn State's career scoring chart with 1,609 points. He is just the second player in program history to score 500 points in three consecutive seasons.
The Lions were 19 of 44 from the floor and 9 of 21 from long range. They outrebounded Nebraska 39-26 as Newbill and Jordan Dickerson each had six.
Seven early second-half points from Thorpe and 3-pointers from Garner and Taylor helped Penn State open a 37-17 lead before Tarin Smith and Petteway put up seven straight to cut the gap to 13.
The Huskers' momentum continued when Shields drove the lane for an easy layup, Smith popped a 10-footer along the baseline and Penn State went on a scoring drought of its own for more than 7 minutes. Nebraska closed to 37-29 to force a Penn State timeout.
The Huskers' Tyler Webster took off on a full-court sprint with a turnover to put the Huskers to within six before Penn State's Garner popped a 3-pointer and Devin Foster drove the lane for an uncontested layup to put the Lions up 42-31.
But the Huskers stayed close with two free throws from Walter Pitchford, a layup from Tai Webster and a long 3 from Petteway to make it 44-41.
Nebraska was 4 of 23 from the field and 1 of 9 from long range in the opening half. The Huskers were scoreless from 15:43 to the 5:10 mark and after that hit two free throws until David Rivers rebounded Benny Parker's missed 3-pointer and put in a layup at the first-half buzzer.