5 Takeaways from Penn State’s 83-74 Win over Indiana

Penn State made it back-to-back wins on Saturday afternoon, making the trip across campus from Rec Hall and a victory over Illinois earlier in the week back to the Bryce Jordan Center for an 83-74 win and regular season sweep of Indiana. Ace Baldwin Jr. led the way with 23 points while Zach Hicks continued a strong run of play with 17 of his own. Penn State improved to 14-14 on the year and 8-9 in Big Ten play with the victory.

The Nittany Lions will head to Iowa next Tuesday and then Minnesota on Saturday before closing out the regular season at home against Maryland on March 10.

Balance Baby: Penn State finished the job with five different double-digit scorers and Puff Johnson a basket away from joining that group with eight points. Whatever Penn State might miss about Kanye Clary’s ability to score, there’s no question that he did that scoring in no small part with volume attempts. Meanwhile, this bunch was led by a 23-point effort by Ace Baldwin, who did that on 12 attempts while Zach Hicks got to 17 on 11 shots from the field. Seven different players attempted at least four shots on Saturday and five players picked up an assist, too. Sharing is caring after all.

Rebounding Win: It says something about Penn State’s rebounding efforts this season in Big Ten games that I needed to actually look and see if this was the first contest the Nittany Lions won on the glass in conference play. As it turns out, it wasn’t; Penn State also won the battle against Rutgers and Northwestern, and did so again against Indiana by just one rebound. The Hoosiers won the offensive rebounding margin by one, but for a team that has struggled to win on the glass, Saturday was a good step and a nice bounce back effort after facing an Illinois team that had its way. Then again, the Illini entered that game the fourth-best rebounding team in the nation. Unsurprisingly, Qudus Wahab led the way here with 11 boards in a double-double effort.

Pickpocket: Ace Baldwin snagged four steals against Indiana, which marked his 10th game this season with at least four. Baldwin entered into the game ranked sixth nationally in steals per game at a 2.78 clip, still the best in the Big Ten. As a team Penn State managed to score 13 points off of 12 Indiana turnovers. The Nittany Lions, meanwhile, coughed the ball up just 11 times, a more than acceptable number in conference play. Baldwin is second among all active Division I players in career steals as he rounds past 260. He could climb higher into the all-time books if he returns next season.

Almost Almost: A somewhat meaningless stat but an interesting one nevertheless: Heading into Saturday, only Rutgers and Michigan had failed to put up at least 39 points in one half of a game against Penn State’s defense this year. Indiana nearly joined that group but a late basket got the Hoosiers over the hump with 41 second half points. This figure doesn’t mean much, but it does speak to the fact that this Nittany Lion bunch still lacks at times on the defensive end. Forty points in a half isn’t outrageous, but it’s a tough ask to try and beat Big Ten teams on a race to 80+ each week. Then again, that’s two games in a row where it has worked out in Penn State’s favor. The weird thing: Penn State being so good at stealing the ball, and yet so below at average at stopping teams from scoring. Different skills, but still cousins.

50 Spot: In a different department of “things we already knew,” Penn State struggled in the paint, giving up 50 points to the Hoosiers from just about point blank range. To his credit Qudus Wahab is managing to get through games without fouling out, but Penn State’s interior defense leaves a lot to be desired. Why that’s the case is probably the result of a few things but whatever the case might be, it’s safe to say it’s not unrelated to some rebounding woes as well.