UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State men's basketball team travels to Chicagoland where the Nittany Lions will face Northwestern Monday, Feb. 4 in an 8 p.m. ET contest at Welsh-Ryan Arena. The game will be televised on FS1, the first-ever regular season Big Ten basketball game to be broadcast in 4K.
Monday night's game is the only regular-season meeting between the Nittany Lions (7-14, 0-10) and the Wildcats (12-9, 3-7) as the Big Ten schedule moved to 20 games for 2018-19 with each team playing seven opponents twice and six once. This is the first of two games on the road as Penn State opens the second half of its Big Ten Conference schedule.
Last year, the two programs played both regular-season games January with the wins going to the home teams. A third meeting, in the Big Ten Tournament, gave Penn State its current one-game win streak and 31 overall wins in the series.
The Nittany Lions and Wildcats are both averaging 68.5 points per game with a rebounding average (36.7-33.5) in Penn State's favor. Northwestern has the edge in both field goal (41.4-40.9) and 3-point field goal percentage (33.4-31.9).
Junior forward Lamar Stevens recorded his 26th career game of 20 or more points vs. No. 17 Purdue and redshirt junior Mike Watkins moved to No. 3 on Penn State's career double-double list with a 10-point, 11-rebound effort.
Stevens and senior guard Josh Reaves are averaging 18.3 and 10.2 points per game, respectively, in Big Ten Conference play with three Nittany Lions just below the double-figure mark: Myles Dread (9.5), Rasir Bolton (9.4) and Watkins (9.0).
WATCH: FS1
TALENT: Dave Revsine (pxp) & Doug Gottlieb (analyst)
LISTEN: Penn State Sports Network
Steve Jones (pxp) & Dick Jerardi (analyst)
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SOCIAL: Twitter @PennStateMBB & @Coach_Chambers | Facebook | Instagram @PennStateMBB.
ROSTER: Penn State | Northwestern
SCHEDULE: Penn State | Northwestern
STATS: Penn State | Northwestern
GAME NOTES: Penn State | Northwestern
MEDIA GUIDE: Penn State | Northwestern
NORTHWESTERN
Coach: Chris Collins (Duke, 1996)
Northwestern Record: 100-86 (6th season)
Career Record: 100-86 (6th season)
2018-19 Record: 12-9, 3-7 Big Ten
2018-19 Leading Scorer
#4 Vic Law, R-Sr., F – 15.3 ppg
2018-19 Leading Rebounder
#5 Dererk Pardon, Sr., C – 7.8 rpg
2018-19 Assists Leader
#21 A.J. Turner, R-Jr., F – 3.3 ppg
PENN STATE NITTANY LIONS
Coach: Patrick Chambers (Philadelphia, 1994)
Penn State Record: 120-135 (8th season)
Career Record: 162-163 (10th season)
2018-19 Leading Scorer:
#11 Lamar Stevens, Jr., F - 18.9 ppg
2018-19 Leading Rebounder:
#24 Mike Watkins, R-Jr., F - 8.5 rpg
2018-19 Assists Leader:
#23 Josh Reaves, Sr., G - 3.6 apg
PENN STATE STARTERS (LAST GAME)
F -- 11 -- Lamar Stevens – Jr. | 2018-19 ppg: 18.9 | rpg: 7.7
Note: 26th career game with 20+ points; 1 of 4 ranked in B1G top 10 in scoring (#3) and rebounding (#9)
F -- 24 – John Harrar – So. | 2018-19 ppg: 3.3 | rpg: 3.9
Note: 10th start of 18-19; Field goal % of 55.6 in B1G games, 52.1 % overall
G – 2 – Myles Dread -- Fr. | 2018-19 ppg: 9.0 | rpg: 3.0
Note: Team-best 49 3-pt. field goals; 17 starts (most of freshmen); 11.2 ppg in last 5 games
G – 5 – Jamari Wheeler -- So. | 2018-19 ppg: 2.7| rpg: 2.8
Note: Has started last 5 games and 14 overall; possesses 4.7:1 assist to turnover ratio in last five starts
G – 23 -- Josh Reaves -- Sr. | 2018-19 ppg: 10.1 | rpg: 4.7
Note: Ranked No. 3 on PSU career steals list and No. 9 on Big Ten career list (222); closing in on 500 career rebounds (480), 300 assists (291) and 1,000 points (952)
SERIES vs. NORTHWESTERN
In the last 10 meetings between Northwestern and Penn State, each program has five wins. The Nittany Lions are 3-3 in games played in the Chicagoland area under coach Patrick Chambers with the last win in Evanston coming during 2015-16 (71-62, 1/16/16). The only meeting during the 2016-17 season was at Penn State.
Meetings from last 10 seasons are on page 4 of the game notes. The full series list is in the media guide (pages 174-75).
Series streak: Penn State, W1
Last game: at New York, N.Y. (BTT-MSG)
Penn State 65, Northwestern 57, 3/1/18 (2nd round)
Overall series: Penn State leads 31-19
at Northwestern: Penn State leads 13-11
Chambers vs. Northwestern: 5-7
STARTING 5
Monday's game on FS1 will be the first-ever Big Ten regular-season basketball game to be broadcast in 4K.
Twelve of Penn State's games this season have been decided by single digits (W-2, L-10), including seven of the 10 Big Ten Conference contests.
Seven of the Nittany Lions' eight opponents in January were ranked, held Associated Press top-25 rankings or were receiving votes at the time the teams played. Penn State was one of four DI programs to face five ranked foes in the month.
Myles Dread leads Penn State and the Big Ten freshmen with 49 3-point field goals. The Detroit, Mich., native is seventh on the overall conference chart. The last time a Nittany Lion freshman led the team in treys was in 2004-05 (Danny Morrissey, 53). Top five freshmen totals listed on page 4.
Julius Erving Award candidate Lamar Stevens moved up to the No. 12 spot on Penn State's career scoring list (1,420) and has scored in double figures in all but one game this season, has six double-doubles and 11 games with 20 or more points in 2018-19.
COMEBACK EFFORT VS. NO. 17 PURDUE FALLS SHORT IN OT, 99-90
Penn State battled back from a 17-point deficit in regulation and took an 85-83 lead with 58 seconds to play, but fell in overtime 99-90 to No. 17 Purdue. Boilermaker Carsen Edwards tied the game at 85 and converted a four-point play early in the extra period to give Purdue a six-point lead, 91-85.
Edwards, Purdue's junior guard had a game-best 38 points as he and Ryan Cline each combined for 28 of the Boilermakers' 35 second-half points. The Boilermakers were 3-4 from the field and Nojel Eastern was 6-6 from the free throw line in overtime to seal the win.
Penn State trailed by as many as eight three times in the second half, but responded repeatedly and outscored Purdue 41-35. The Nittany Lions cut the Purdue lead to one, 67-66, with 8:11 left and then two, 80-78, at the 3:39 mark before tying the game at 83 with 2:12 to play. Junior forward Lamar Stevens found freshman guard Rasir Bolton on the right baseline to put Penn State up 85-83 with just under a minute to play for its only lead of the game.
Five Nittany Lions scored in double figures with junior forward Lamar Stevens leading the pack with 24 points. Redshirt junior Mike Watkins recorded his 25th career double-double with 10 points and a game-high 11 rebounds in the effort. Freshmen guards Rasir Bolton and Myles Dread had 18 and 14 points, respectively, for their Big Ten career-best totals.
Purdue led by 17 points, 42-25, with 5:23 left in the first half, but Penn State went on a 19-5 run to close the gap to 47-44 keyed by seven points by both Watkins and Stevens. A trey by Aaron Wheeler as the clock expired gave Purdue a 50-44 lead at the break.
Sophomore forward John Harrar tipped in a miss and the Nittany Lions were within two with 11:20 to play in regulation. Purdue held the lead, going up by as many as eight, 77-69, on the second of Cline's three-straight 3-point field goals. Dread and Bolton countered with treys within 40 seconds to trail by only three, 80-77.
BY THE NUMBERS
2.85 – Team GPA for fall 2018 semester, highest single-semester GPA by the Nittany Lions in the Chambers era.
3 – Millions of dollars raised (net) by Coaches vs. Cancer-Penn State since the organization was launched in 1995.
6 – Penn State's overall strength of schedule is the sixth-toughest in the nation with a nonconfrence SOS of 29, according to CBS Sports. Kenpom.com has the Nittany Lions' strength of schedule at No. 6.
25 – Recording his 25th career double-double (all pts/rebs) with 10 points and 11 boards vs. No. 17 Purdue, Mike Watkins ranks third on PSU's career list.
30 – Including both the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons (60 games), 30, or half, have been decided by single digits.
291, 480, 952 – Senior guard Josh Reaves is nine assists from career 300. He needs 20 rebounds for career number 500 and 48 points to reach the 1,000 career points milestone.
