Nittany Lions Win 61-58 Nailbiter Over Indiana

Nittany Lions Win 61-58 Nailbiter Over Indiana
Penn State uses strong defense, balanced attack to down Hoosiers

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – It came down to the wire, but the Penn State men’s basketball team rode a strong defensive effort to a 61-58 win over the Indiana Hoosiers Sunday afternoon inside the Bryce Jordan Center as the Nittany Lions returned from a 22-day layoff to earn their first Big Ten victory of the season.

In a nailbiter that saw eight tie scores and nine lead changes, Penn State led by as much as 10 points midway through the second half before Indiana clawed back to make it a traditional close game between the two teams. The last 11 contents between Penn State and Indiana have been decided by an average of just 4.9 points.

Senior Jalen Pickett led the Nittany Lions with 15 points while classmates Myles Dread and Sam Sessoms also contributed double-digits off the bench with 12 and 10, respectively. Dread was 4-for-5 from three-point range.

Penn State dominated the glass, out-rebounding Indiana 39-29, led by a game-high 12 rebounds by graduate student and big man John Harrar.

HOW IT HAPPENED
 It was a slow start for both teams offensively with just a 8-6 Indiana advantage at the first media timeout of the game nearly five minutes in.
 The Penn State defense held Indiana scoreless for a four-minute span leading up to and right after the under-12 timeout to get the game back to an even 16-all before a Seth Lundy three gave the Nittany Lions a 19-18 lead with 6:55 remaining in the half.
 The Penn State defense held Indiana scoreless for the final 2:15 of the opening term as a Lundy three and a jumper by Pickett in the final 90 seconds had Penn State heading into the locker room at halftime with a 27-26 advantage.
 Indiana regained the lead five minutes into the second half, 36-33, before back-to-back threes from Dread and Sessoms made it a three-point swing in favor of the Nittany Lions.
 That sparked a 13-2 run capped by Dread’s third 3-pointer of the game as Penn State would then go on to make seven-straight field goals to take its largest lead of the game, 51-41, with 10:28 left.
 A four-minute scoring drought and 9-0 run by the visitors brought the Hoosiers back within one point, 51-50, with just under six minutes remaining.
 The Penn State lead remained at one after Dread and Indiana’s Rob Phinisee traded threes with 93 seconds left in regulation.
 Lundy hit two free throws before the Hoosiers hit a field goal to keep it a one-point contest with less than a minute remaining.
 Indiana called timeout with 21 seconds remaining before missing a shot and tipping the ball out of bounds to give the Nittany Lions possession with 15 seconds on the clock.
 Sessoms then hit two clutch free throws for the eventual winning score of 61-58. The Hoosiers missed two 3-point attempts as time expired as Penn State hung on to claim the victory.

GAME NOTES
 Head Coach Micah Shrewsberry earned his first Big Ten victory as a head coach.
 Penn State held Indiana nearly 20 points below its season scoring average of 77.2. The Nittany Lions have held six of their last eight opponents at least 10 points under their season scoring average.
 The Nittany Lions controlled a 39-29 rebound advantage. Indiana entered the game averaging 41.6 boards per contest.
 Penn State shot a season-best 50.0 percentage (11-for-22) from 3-point range. Dread led the Nittany Lions in that effort, finishing 4-for-5 (80 percent) from deep.
 Jalen Pickett has scored in double figures in seven of the last eight games, including the last four.
 John Harrar recorded his eighth double-digit rebound game of the season, finishing with a game-high 12 rebounds.
 Seth Lundy tied his career high with 10 rebounds, last done in Big Ten play against Rutgers last season (1/21/21).
 Transfer Greg Lee made his first start as a Nittany Lion after making his Penn State debut at Michigan State back on Dec. 11. Lee scored a season-high six points and added a season-high four rebounds in limited minutes after getting into foul trouble in his second game of the season.
 Penn State beat Indiana for just the second time in the last eight meetings.

FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Micah Shrewsberry
• “First off, I appreciate the fans that came and supported us today. It’s break and students are gone – the students have been great, but the community, the fans that came today was big because it got loud in there. There were stretches where it was really loud and they helped us and that’s really important so I want to thank everybody that came and cheered for us. Every time we play we want to make Penn State proud. If this is your one game that you get an opportunity to come to – maybe you live somewhere out of town, maybe you don’t leave close to here, you’re in town for the holidays, you get a chance to come watch this team play one time – I hope that person felt good about how hard our guys played, and how hard they competed. That’s what we want people to leave seeing and I think we did that. Hats off to our guys. Maybe they talked to you about practice this week, but it probably wasn’t the most pleasant thing for them, especially after sitting out for so long. But how they competed, what they did, like we had training camp – there were a bunch of two-a-days, they came in the morning and practiced and they went home and they slept and they ate and they came back and they practiced again. It wasn’t like it was ‘we’re going to get a couple shots up.’ No, we competed. That’s how you have to play, that’s how you have to play in this league, and that’s what those guys did. So hats off to our guys for how they competed this afternoon.”