UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State men's basketball team opened its 2020-21 season with a 21-point victory over Virginia Military Institute, 86-65, on Saturday, November 28 in the Bryce Jordan Center. Paced by a career day by senior guard Jamari Wheeler, the Nittany Lions poured in 11 3-pointers with 40 points coming the paint.
Wheeler's career-best four 3-pointers helped him produce a career high with 18 points in the season opener as the Nittany Lions posted their 250th win in the BJC. Wheeler also added six rebounds and his five steals pushed him into the No. 9 spot on PSU's career steals chart with 152.
"All of us are just really grateful for the opportunity to play this game," said Penn State interim head coach Jim Ferry. "It's been so long. I mean, it's probably almost been, close to 300 days since we played our last game. These guys have worked really, really hard. They have really sacrificed a lot. That goes for everybody, everybody who was able to help us put the games together and to be able to go out here and play tonight was a big deal for us, it really was.
"With that said, I think it looks like we hadn't played in 300 days," Ferry said. We had a lot of get out a lot of rust and guys getting to know each other, first competition, not against ourselves, in a long time, and a lot of practices, and I think we really just needed this. We needed this, to play against somebody else. We needed to play against someone in a different uniform running different things, challenging us in different ways."
In total, the Nittany Lions had five players finish in double-figure scoring. Junior guard Izaiah Brockington finished with 15 points, eight rebounds and three steals. Sophomore Seth Lundy, junior Myreon Jones and junior Sam Sessoms each finished with 12.
The win was Penn State's fourth-straight season opening victory and 15th of the last 16 years. For Ferry, it was his 12th-straight win in a home opener and first at Penn State.
The Nittany Lions offense clicked on all cylinders in the second 20 minutes of action. Penn State shot 51.4% from the field and made seven of its 11 threes while limiting the Keydets to just nine total field goals in the second half.
Wheeler scored 13 of his 18 in the second half, going 4-8 from the field and perfect at 2-2 from beyond the arc. Free throws by Brockington tied the game at 45 and then gave Penn State a one-point advantage at 46-45 just 5:27 into the second half. Sessoms stole the ball and set up Wheeler for a trey, then four different Nittany Lions hit field goals en route to a 13-point lead at 63-48 at the midway point.
The Nittany Lions opened the game on an 8-3 run behind two quick buckets from Brockington. The Keydets erased their early deficit with efficiency, using a 22-6 run to grab a 26-14 lead with 7:19 remaining in the opening half. Penn State struggled early from beyond the arc, shooting only 23.5 percent after starting 0-7.
Sessoms' effort off the bench sparked the Nittany Lions with five-straight points as part of a 14-1 run to claim a 28-27 lead with just under three to go in the half. Wheeler gave Penn State the halftime 37-35 lead with a deep triple at the buzzer going into the break.
Penn State added 13 more steals to Wheeler's five and tied the BJC single-game record with 18. The Nittany Lions had 18 steals vs. Fairleigh Dickinson on Nov. 12, 2017.
VMI's Greg Parham led all scorers with 21 points, going 7-10 from the field. Kamdyn Curfman had 17 with a game-best five 3-pointers.
Penn State plays host to VCU on Wednesday, December 2 at 5 p.m. ET in its next contest. The game will be broadcast by FS1.
Keep up to date with the latest information from the Nittany Lions at @PennStateMBB on Twitter and Instagram and on Facebook at @pennstatebasketball.
PENN STATE vs. VMI NOTES
- Penn State opened its 125th year of basketball with Saturday's 86-65 win over VMI in the Bryce Jordan Center.
- With the win to open 2020-21, Penn State posted its 250th win in the Bryce Jordan Center.
- Penn State is now 94-31 in season openers and 111-14 in home season openers.
- The Nittany Lions are now 5-1 over the Keydets and have won the last four consecutive.
- Penn State tied the Bryce Jordan Center single-game record for steals (18) and tied is program record for 3-point attempts with 36 (at Northwestern, 3/7/2020).
- Senior guard Jamari Wheeler had career-best 18 points with a career-best four 3-pointers. He surpassed his previous career best of 14 points vs. Oral Roberts (11/24/2017).
- Wheeler had five of Penn State's 18 steals, which moved him into ninth place on Penn State's career steals chart with 152.
- Izaiah Brockington made his first start as a Nittany Lion and scored Penn State's first points of the 2020-21 season.
- All five newcomers made their debuts as Nittany Lions. Junior transfer Sam Sessoms had 12 points and four steals. Freshman guard Dallion Johnson scored his first points as Nittany Lion with a trey with 1:27 left in the game. Abdou Tsimbila played 2:20 and Caleb Dorsey and DJ Gordon both came in with 1:40 to play.
- For interim head coach Jim Ferry, in his 20th year as a head coach, it was his 12th-straight win in a home opener to move his record to 18-2. In season openers, Ferry is now 13-7.