The Penn State men’s basketball team took full advantage of its only home game in a five-game stretch, making quick work of Youngstown State in a 82-71 victory Wednesday night.
In the first half, the Nittany Lions’ 7-10 barrage from behind the arc put Youngstown State away early, and Penn State’s pressure defense was too much for the Penguins to mount a serious comeback.
Tim Frazier once again was the anchor on offense, leading the way with 26 points and 11 assists. Cam Woodyard also contributed 10 points, and freshman Guard Trey Lewis had a impressive 12-point performance coming off the bench.
In total, the Nittany Lions bench scored 30 points, a positive sign for a program that traditionally struggles to find supplementary scoring.
‘Trey is doing great,’ Frazier said. ‘He’s learning each and every day. Trying to learn about the game, he’s always asking questions each and every day. I asked Talor, and now Trey is always asking me for help.’
Asked if he sees a little bit of his younger self in the freshman guard, Frazier just laughed.
“I kick it ahead and see him make the drive and the strong finish,” Frazier said. “And I’m like, ‘Hey, man — he looks just like me out there.’ He’s just a learner of the game.”
The Nittany Lions entered the game shooting 28.9 percent in the first half, and fired 60 percent from the field, including 7-of-10 from behind the arc, to take a 44-26 halftime lead. Youngstown State opened the second half with five three-pointers on its first eight buckets to close the Nittany Lion lead to nine, but could never get any closer.
Head Coach Pat Chambers said that the shooting performance had everything to do with confidence.
“Some of it is because we’re at home, we took lots of shots in walk-around. We took a ton of shots in practice. If I see a lot of misses, we run it again. We’ve just been shooting the ball a lot,’ Chambers said.
Once again, despite a 26-point performance, Chambers says that he wants to see even more from his junior star.
“It’s crazy for me to even say this, but I want him to be more selfish,” Chambers said. “Sometimes when he turns it over, he just feels like he has to get everybody involved. He does that, but he has to keep it himself some times.”
Penn State moves on to 5-1 in a critical stretch of non-conference basketball that continues this Saturday at 3:30 p.m. against Saint Joseph’s. The Hawks hold a record of 3-2 and lost Wednesday evening in double overtime to Iona, 104-99. The Saturday game can be viewed on BTN.com
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