UNIVERSITY PARK — The Penn State men’s basketball team improved its record to 4-0 with wins over Saint Francis, 92-62, at home on Tuesday, Nov. 12, and over Virginia Tech, 86-64, in the Hall of Fame Series at the CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore on Friday, Nov. 15.
Against Saint Francis, the Lions dominated the second half and pulled away from Red Flash after the two teams played a relatively close first 20 minutes.
The Nittany Lions opened the game by scoring the first 11 points unanswered, but the Flash hung in and actually took a brief lead with 2:17 to play in the first half.
Penn State, however, stayed with the program and, led by star point guard Ace Baldwin, managed to take a seven-point lead heading into the locker rooms.
The second half was a completely different story.
Five minutes in, with the game still a 7-point affair, the Lions took off on a 23-3 run that ended with PSU firmly in control at 79-52.
Penn State forced multiple turnovers during the run and allowed SFU just one field goal and a foul shot.
From there, the Lions played out the clock and took their third win of the season by 30 points.
Puff Johnson led the scoring for the Lions with 20 points while Baldwin added 16 points along with six assists and three steals.
Yanic Konan Niederhauser and D’Marco Dunn were also in double figures with 11 and 10 points respectively.
Niederhauser also pulled seven rebounds and was five-for-five from the line.
Then on Friday, Nov. 15, the Nittany Lions faced Virginia Tech in the Hall of Fame Series Baltimore at the CFG Bank Arena and never trailed in an impressive 86-64 victory over the Hokies.
The Lions, ahead by 8 points at the half, turned on the second half jets again and pulled away with a 49 point performance over the last 20 minutes.
And as impressive as the offense was, the Lions’ defense was arguably even better.
The defense forced 24 Hokie turnovers and took 16 steals in the game while Baldwin, Zach Hicks, Nick Kern and Freddie Dilione V were filling it up on the offensive side.
Baldwin finished with 19 points, 10 assists and three steals, and Hicks also scored 19 points and pulled five rebounds. Kern added 16 points and Dilione scored 11.
It was Penn State’s fourth win of the season, and it marked the third consecutive year that the team started the season 4-0. Penn State now has beaten Virginia Tech in four of their last five meetings.
“I thought we wanted to press today, but I didn’t think we would turn over Virginia Tech 24 times,” Penn State head coach Mike Rhoades said. “But we had multiple guys really guard the ball hard in the backcourt, and even if we didn’t get turnovers, they couldn’t easily get into their offenses. We are always contest every shot and try to get deflections and crowd the ball. We just want to deny, disrupt and have great discipline while we do that. We got tested. We adjusted at halftime, and guys came out led by our seniors and that was huge.”
Penn State next played Purdue Fort Wayne at home on Wednesday, Nov. 20, scores were not available prior to The Gazette’s publishing deadline. Next up is a matchup with Fordham at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Florida on Monday, Nov. 25.
