Jan. 28, 2018
UNIVERSITYPARK, Pa. - From an emotional beginning to an emphatic ending, Penn State hoopsentertained an energized crowd at the Bryce Jordan Center Saturday afternoon. Infront of a season-high crowd clad in bright colors, Penn State defeated Rutgersmarking its first back-to-back Big Ten win this year.
Comingoff a thrilling road win at No. 13 Ohio State Thursday, even Chambers notedthere was concern on his mind.
"Usuallya win like that in that type of fashion against a top 15 team, especially OhioState, You're worried about how we would respond," Chambers said. "You'reworried about all the tweets and text messages, all that, getting in theirhead."
Inthe tale of two halves Saturday, what might have looked like Chambers' worstfear, turned out to be another step in the process.
PennState and Rutgers kept it close in the first half until Tony Carr sent the NittanyLions into the locker room with each of last five points in a 7-0 run for a28-23 advantage. Despite foul trouble and shooting slumps, Penn State upgradedits defense to spark its second half offense.
"Wereally drew that line in the sand - and we were going get stops and Ichallenged this team the last two days about rebounding," Chambers said. "Thisis one of the best rebounding teams in the Big Ten, this is one of the bestdefensive teams in the Big Ten."
PennState dominated the Scarlet Knights on the boards, out-rebounding Rutgers42-27, with just two offensive grabs.
Afterholding Rutgers to 28.6 percent shooting in the first half, the Nittany Lionscame out of the break with a 7-0 run to build a double figure lead that theywould hardly relinquish before closing out the 60-43 win.
Bolsteredonce again by the energy of Josh Reaves' return, for him, the adjustment camedown to communication.
"Wewere just communicating, talking, pointing, doing everything we could to helpeach other out," Reaves said. "They're a very good team, very physical team andwe managed to get a win. They're a very big team with 7-footers coming off thebench and they play very well together."
Reaveswas just one of three double figure scorers for the Nittany lions, finishingtied for second on the team with 15 points, adding four steals and a block.Carr led the way offensively for the Nittany Lions, scoring 16 points to goalong with four assists.
MikeWatkins powered the defense with 15 points and 19 rebounds for his 10thdouble-double of the season. With 19 boards, Watkins grabbed the most reboundsfor a Nittany Lion since Aaron Johnson had 21 against Northwestern on Jan. 15,2005.
Postgame,while reflecting on the emotion of a successful THON game, Chambers was ofcourse passionate about the cause, but it perhaps all became a little bitbrighter in the outcome on the court.
"There'splenty of examples about a good win and then coming back and not being sharp,not having that mental toughness to be able to come back and play the same 40minutes or I've been saying the full 200 minutes, collectively," Chambers said."I'm not going to say it's a breakthrough, this is a process. We have to buyinto this process, take it one day at a time, one step at a time."