Penn State men’s basketball continued to defend home court, rolling past Indiana 85-66 on Wednesday evening at the Bryce Jordan Center as the Nittany Lions improved to 12-5 on the year and 3-3 in Big Ten play.
Despite facing an Indiana team with high preseason expectations and bevy of historical success, the Nittany Lions made relatively quick work of the visiting Hoosiers after a back-and-forth opening 10 minutes of regulation. Indiana would take a brief 15-13 lead before Penn State closed out the first half on a 24-11 run to head into the half with a 37-26 advantage.
Seth Lundy led the way the entire night, finishing with 25 points, 14 of those coming in the opening 20 minutes as he went four-of-seven from beyond the arc. Camren Wynter was surprisingly apt at distribution on the night, dishing out six first half assists while the usual pass savvy Jalen Pickett had six of his own in the second half. Andrew Funk helped Penn State built a late first half lead with 11 points on three-of-five shooting from deep. He ended the night with 23 points. Evan Mahaffey and Pickett would each add 12 points to the box score.
Indiana would surge in the opening five minutes of the second half, cutting 13 point deficit to just five with 15:07 to go in the game. Penn State would manufacture a methodical response over the next 7:12 of play, working out a 25-12 run after the Hoosier made it a two possession game. The surge started with a 10-4 run in the three minutes following Indiana closing the gap to just five points.
Up 19 with 7:11 to go, Penn State would lead by as many as 23 but would never see its margin decrease past 18 points in the final five minutes of regulation. Indiana would make just five baskets from the field in the final 7:45 of regulation as Penn State’s defense stifled the Hoosiers as much as the Nittany Lions’ 54% shooting from the field buried them. Penn State finished the night shooting 58% from beyond the arc on a 18-for-31 clip while committing just seven turnovers on 19 assists.
Penn State will have a week off before traveling to face Wisconsin in Madison. The Nittany Lions will then return home to host Nebraska.
