Penn State men’s basketball rolled past Lafayette to the tune of a 70-57 victory at the Bryce Jordan Center on Friday night, improving the Nittany Lions’ record to 6-1 on the year.
It was a game like nearly all Penn State has played so far this season, the Nittany Lions relying on consistent three-point shooting and relatively stout defense to guide the way. All the same, Lafayette did come out strong in the early going, taking a 19-12 lead with 12:13 to go in the first half. The slight deficit would force a timeout by Penn State coach Micah Shrewsberry, who after the game jokingly cited the digestive systems of his players for the slow start. He was less humorous with his on-court scolding of his team during that timeout.
“And apparently we ate too much food because we started like we did,” Shrewsberry said after the game, just 24 hours removed from a program-wide celebration of Thanksgiving.
Penn State responded to the wake-up call by its coach, coming out of the timeout and closing out the first half on a 27-13 run. Despite the cold shooting to start the game, Penn State made 12 of its next 20 shots over the final 11:52 of the first half. Jalen Pickett led the way in the opening 20 minutes of play with 14 points, while Seth Lundy poured in 10 of his own.
As a team, Penn State finished off the first half going 8-for-16 from beyond the arc en route to a game that saw the Nittany Lions make 11 shots from deep on 27 attempts. So far this season the Nittany Lions have failed to make double-digit three point attempts just once in seven games.
Still feeling the momentum from the first half, the Nittany Lions opened the second on a 21-8 run which saw Penn State’s lead ballon to 26-points and effectively turn a hopeful Lafayette upset bid into a convincing Penn State victory.
Ahead by 26, Shrewsberry opted to play the majority of his bench for the final seven minutes of regulation as Penn State closed out a stretch of five games in 12 days. In spite of giving Lafayette a far less intimidating lineup to work with for a meaningful portion of the second half, Penn State’s lead would never shrink to less than the final 13-point margin of victory and was as big as 20 points with three minutes left.
Across the box score Penn State did go -7 on the glass to continue a potentially ominous defensive trend in the interior, but the Nittany Lions’ 48% shooting, 17 assists and 30 points in the paint did prove more than enough to limit any damage Penn State’s weaknesses might invite. Pickett finished the evening with 18 points to his name while Camren Wynter added 11 of his own. Lundy finished off the evening with 15 points and a team-high seven rebounds.
The Nittany Lions will now wait four days before a trip to face Clemson in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.
