UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State men's basketball team looks to carry its momentum from back-to-back Big Ten wins last week into a 7 p.m. Monday night road battle at Maryland on ESPN2. The 2021-22 Penn State men's basketball season is presented by Highmark Health.
FOLLOW ALONG
- TV: ESPN2 – Jason Benetti (pxp) & Robbie Hummel (analyst)
- RADIO: Penn State Sports Network (PDF) with Steve Jones and Dick Jerardi – 103.7 FM & 1450 AM
- NATIONAL RADIO: Sirius XM – XM Ch. 386 | SXM App Ch. 976
- LIVE STATS: Live Stats
- GAME NOTES: Penn State Notes | Maryland Notes
OPENING TIPS
- Penn State and Maryland meet for the only time this regular season Monday night when the Nittany Lions travel to the XFinity Center.
- The Nittany Lions have won their last two games - a 62-58 victory over #19 Michigan State Tuesday and a dominant 67-46 win over Minnesota Thursday.
- Four Nittany Lions are averaging double-digit points, led by Jalen Pickett's 13.0 ppg. Seth Lundy (12.6 ppg) and Sam Sessoms (11.3 ppg) follow, while John Harrar is nearly averaging a double-double with 10.5 ppg and 9.7 rpg.
IF PENN STATE BEATS MARYLAND
- The Nittany Lions would win their third-straight game.
- Penn State would pick up its first road win since Jan. 5 at Northwestern (74-70).
- The Nittany Lions would earn their fifth-straight win over the Terps.
SCOUTING THE TERRAPINS
- Maryland enters Monday's meeting at 12-14 overall and 4-11 in Big Ten play.
- The Terps snapped a five-game losing streak Friday night when Maryland earned a 90-74 road win at Nebraska.
- Four Terrapins are averaging double-digit points, led by Eric Ayala's 14.6 ppg. Fatts Russell (14.0 ppg) and Donta Scott (12.7 ppg) follow. Russell leads the team with 99 assists, while Scott leads the squad with 6.2 rebounds per game.
AGAINST MARYLAND
- Penn State and Maryland meet for the only time this regular season Monday night.
- The all-time series that dates back to 1938 is tied 14-14, but Penn State has won seven of the last nine meetings including each of the last four. The Nittany Lions hold a 6-5 advantage since Maryland moved to the Big Ten.
- The Nittany Lions swept last season's series, beginning with a 55-50 win in Happy Valley on Feb. 5, 2021. A 66-61 Penn State win on March 7, 2021 at the XFinity Center followed.
- The Terps held a 33-28 halftime lead in that March 7, 2021 meeting, but Penn State stormed back to outscore Maryland 43-28 in the second half for the 66-61 win. Seth Lundy led Penn State with 31 points and 8 rebounds.
TWO-STRAIGHT
- Penn State rides a two-game win streak into Monday's matchup at Maryland.
- The two-game stretch began Feb. 15 when the Nittany Lions used a 33-15 run in the game's final 13 minutes to erase a 14-point deficit and rally to defeat #19 Michigan State 62-58 at the Bryce Jordan Center. The 33-15 game-closing run was cemented with a 12-4 Penn State advantage in the final 3:04 as the Nittany Lions clawed back for first-year head coach Micah Shrewsberry's first head coaching victory over a ranked team.
- Penn State then carried that momentum into their second meeting with Minnesota in five days, earning a dominant 67-46 win over the visiting Gophers on Feb. 17. Jalen Pickett scored 20 points to lead a Penn State offense that shot 53.8 percent from the field as the Nittany Lions picked up their second-straight victory.
THE LAST SIX
- Penn State is 3-3 in its last six games, with the three losses coming by a combined nine points.
- The Nittany Lions earned wins over Iowa (90-86 2OT), #19 Michigan State (62-58) and Minnesota (67-46) during the last six games. The three losses by a combined nine points came at #11 Wisconsin (49-51), against Michigan (57-58) and at Minnesota (70-76).
DE-FENSE!
- The Nittany Lions allow just 64.7 points per game overall, the third-best mark in the Big Ten, and just 0.48 ppg behind the top-ranked defense of Indiana.
- Penn State has limited its Big Ten opponents to 65.57 points per conference game, tied for second best in the Big Ten and just 0.07 ppg behind first-place Rutgers.
- The Nittany Lions have held three opponents to under 50 points this season - Jan. 17 vs. Minnesota (67-46 Win), Jan. 11 vs. Rutgers (66-49 Win), and Nov. 27 vs. Oregon State (60-45 Win). Penn State has held its opponent under 60 points 10 times this season.
- Penn State's current mark of 64.7 points per game allowed tracks to be the Nittany Lions' best defensive season since 2010-11 when Penn State surrendered just 62.5 ppg. The 2010-11 team made an NCAA Tournament appearance.
COMEBACK KIDS
- Penn State has erased a 10-plus point deficit to come back and win three times this season.
- The never-say-die Nittany Lions most recently trailed #19 Michigan State by 14 with 13:20 to play, but closed the game on a 33-15 run to earn a 62-58 win over the ranked Spartans.
- Northwestern led by as much as 10 at 55-45 with 9:37 to play on Jan. 5, but Penn State's offense came to life in the final 9:14 as the Nittany Lions shot 9-for-13 from the field and 4-for-6 from deep to rally for the 74-70 road win.
- The Nittany Lions also faced a 10-point deficit on Nov. 22 against Cornell, but Penn State spent the final six minutes of the game on a 21-7 run to earn the 85-74 victory over the Big Red.
PAINT PARTY
- Penn State has held an advantage in points in the paint in eight of its last 10 games, despite having the smallest roster by height in the Big Ten as ranked by KenPom's avg, height metric.
- The Nittany Lions rank 14th out of the 14 Big Ten teams, and 232nd out of 358 Division I teams in average roster height according to KenPom.
- Penn State has averaged 27.4 points in the paint per game over the last 10 contests, compared to its opponents' 19.8 paint points per contest.
- Despite the height disadvantage, Penn State has also out-rebounded its opponent or tied its opponent in rebounding in 11 of 15 Big Ten contests.
PICKETT'S POP
- Senior transfer Jalen Pickett is averaging 14.3 points, 3.8 assists and 3.6 rebounds per Big Ten contest.
- Pickett has played 263 minutes over the last seven games with 24 assists and just five turnovers during that five-game stretch. Pickett's 36.8 minutes per game leads the Big Ten.
- He led Penn State with 20 points on 9-of-14 shooting in Thursday's dominant win over Minnesota.
B1G JOHN
- Penn State graduate student John Harrar owns season-long marks of 10.5 points and 9.7 rebounds per game. His 9.7 rebounds per game rank second in the Big Ten.
- The Wallingford, Pa. native has tallied eight double-doubles thus far, pulled down double-digit rebounds in 11 contests, and is shooting 64.6 percent (93-144) from the field. Harrar owns 14 career double-doubles, making him one of just 17 Penn State players all-time to register double-digit double-doubles in their Penn State career. He leads the Big Ten with 3.48 offensive rebounds per game.
- Harrar was the catalyst in Penn State's 62-58 comeback win over #19 Michigan State Tuesday. He scored 16 points, nine of which came in the final seven minutes, and added a career-best 16 rebounds.
- Harrar has played in 138 games throughout his Nittany Lion career, just three games shy of tying and four games shy of breaking the Penn State career games played record of 141 that is currently held by Julian Moore (2013-18).
DREAD FROM DEEP
- Senior Myles Dread drilled his 200th career 3-pointer in Penn State's Jan. 5 win at Northwestern, making him the seventh Nittany Lion to ever reach 200 career triples. He currently has 219 career treys, the sixth-most all-time by a Nittany Lion. He needs two to match Danny Morrissey's fifth-best mark of 221 career 3-pointers.
- Dread has proven to have a knack for clutch shots, most recently hitting the game-tying basket to force double overtime in Penn State's 90-86 2OT win over Iowa on Jan. 31.
- Dread is 10-for-14 (71.4 percent) from downtown over Penn State's last four games.
UP NEXT
- The Nittany Lions return home for their final homestand of the regular season. Penn State faces Northwestern at 7 p.m. Friday night on FS1 on Senior Night presented by the Penn State Alumni Association. The Nittany Lions then host Nebraska Sunday at 7 p.m. in the regular-season home finale.