Penn State improved to 7-6 on Friday afternoon to close out the final game of the non conference schedule with a convincing 90-63 victory over Rider at the Bryce Jordan Center. The Nittany Lions got a career-high 29 points from Kanye Clary while Ace Baldwin Jr. scored 10 points to go along with his nine assists. D’Marco Dunn also continued his strong play as of late with 12 points while Puff Johnson rounded out Penn State’s double-digit scorers with 10 of his own. Penn State will kick off the remainder of Big Ten play on Jan. 4 at Michigan State before hosting Michigan three days later in Philadelphia at The Palestra.
The Nittany Lions will start the bulk of conference play at 1-1 in the Big Ten with a loss to Maryland and a win over Ohio State. In the meanwhile, here are five takeaways from Friday’s victory.
Dominance Play: Rider had a 6-0 run and that was the closest thing that came to Penn State really ever having to worry in this game. Penn State has struggled at times against teams it shouldn’t struggle against and while beating Rider isn’t quite the same thing as beating Michigan State, there’s something to be said for coming out, taking a commanding lead and never looking back. Penn State led by as many as 30, gets credit for a 15-0 run and won the first half by 20 points. These games might not be memorable, but winning them easily is a good starting point for a rebuilding program.
Career High: At this point it’s not much of a surprise that Kanye Clary is going to score by getting to a career-high 29 points is nothing if not noteworthy. Penn State shot 55% from the field on Friday and Clary’s high effective 12-for-16 shooting clip had a lot to do with that. Credit to Ace Baldwin for his nine of Penn State’s 13 total assists to go with a modest 16 turnover effort. Clary is probably the most improved player in the Big Ten and there’s an argument that claim could expand beyond just the conference. A conversation for another day, nevertheless it’s another effective and high-scoring performance from Clary.
Back: Jameel Brown and Favour Aire both played on Friday which is a good addition for a team that will need all hands on deck in Big Ten play. Brown played just three minutes as he comes off an injury and it will be interesting to see how D’Marco Dunn’s surge into the rotation will impact what Mike Rhoades decides to do with a player in Brown who started off the year strong prior to getting hurt. As for Favour, Penn State will happily take all of the long and tall bodies it can get to help out Qudus Wahab on the glass.
Fast Pace: Penn State scored 16 points in transition on Friday and 27 points off of turnovers to really put the clamps on Rider all afternoon. The Nittany Lions are unsurprisingly at their best when in transition and continue to be a team capable of forcing turnovers while doing a good job of limiting their own for the most part. Penn State went into Friday’s game having forced 196 turnovers, 17th best in the nation and best in the Big Ten. How well that translates over to league play remains to be seen.
Still An Issue: You can only get so picky when a team nearly wins by 30 but the Nittany Lions did once again lose on the glass by three rebounds and gave up 19 second chance points. Garbage time can often swing these sorts of numbers in ways that aren’t representative of how the actual game played out, but if you’re going to win by 30 you’d like to think you’d be doing good things across the board. It’s a bit nit-picky considering the score, but it is what it is. In Penn State’s defense going -3 on the glass ain’t that bad.
