Penn State Basketball: No. 23 Nittany Lions Roll To 87-58 Victory

Penn State basketball was in the spirit of giving on Friday night, gifting Central Connecticut State a taste of why the Nittany Lions are ranked No. 23 in the nation and blowing past the Blue Devils 87-58.

It was a hot one as Penn State shot the ball like it was seven inches from the sun, making its first 11 shots from the field to go ahead 25-5 with just over 14 minutes to go in the opening half. The Blue Devils had little in the way of a response or much hope to combat Penn State’s tenacious defense, length and athleticism on both ends of the floor.

To the visitors’ credit they clawed admirably for some footing in the game, holding the deficit to just 20 points for the latter half of the opening 20 minutes.

But the wave could only be held back for so long and Penn State’s lead ballooned to 31 points by the midway point of the second half despite a opening three by Central Connecticut to cut the deficit to 17.

As the clock neared eight minutes to play the Nittany Lions emptied the bench and the final minutes of the game were played out by the reserves. The point had been made.

By the end of the night Myreon Jones had once again led Penn State with 21 points going 4-of-8 from beyond the arc while Lamar Stevens had an effective 10 points in limited action. Mike Watkins paced Penn State on the defensive end with eight points, eight rebounds and five blocks in 25 minutes of play. Izaiah Brockington also hit the double-digit mark with 11 points.

In total 10 different Penn State players scored in the contest as the Nittany Lions improved to 10-2 on the year.

Penn State now finds itself on a brief break from play until a noon meeting against Cornell at the Bryce Jordan Center on the Dec. 29 to close out the non-conference slate. From there the Nittany Lions will face Iowa on Jan. 4 in Philadelphia to start the rest of Big Ten conference play.