The Penn State men’s basketball team sorely needed a victory after consecutive losses to Northwestern and No. 1 Purdue, but with No. 8 Wisconsin coming to town on Jan. 16, that seemed like a tall order.
Fortunately, Kanye Clary, Ace Baldwin and Nick Kern didn’t think so, and the three combined to score 62 points in the Nittany Lions’ tense 87-83 Big Ten victory over the Badgers.
Clary scored 27 points, Baldwin had 20 and Kern 15 as Penn State took a slim 4-point lead at the break and then tightly held on for its ninth win of the season overall and third in the conference.
The second half was back-and-forth the entire time, with neither team taking more than a 6-point advantage at any point.
Heading down the stretch, with two minutes to play and Penn State holding a slim 76-74 lead, Clary nailed a jumper that was followed by two Kern foul shots.
Wisconsin stayed in it after getting 4 points from Tyler Wahl, but Clary struck again with a foul shot and another jumper, giving PSU an 83-77 lead.
Wahl scored once more for the Badgers, making it 83-79 with 23 seconds to play and putting the pressure back onto the Lions.
They emphatically responded with a slam-dunk by center Qudus Wahab, off an assist by D’Marco Dunn, that essentially shut the door for good and handed Wisconsin only its fourth loss of the year after 13 wins.
“Just awesome,” Penn State head coach Mike Rhoades said after the game. “This is what college sports is all about.
“Today was a full game; our guys played with clear minds. We did not respond to bad stretches or calls or turnovers and let it prolong for three or four minutes and lost the game.
“I thought our resolve today was what we need at this level to build on success. So I was really proud of them (the players). I was proud of how they responded late in the game, not how the coaches responded, the way they handled it. So it was a big step.”
Part of the story was Penn State committing just six turnovers on the night — none by Baldwin and Kern and only two by Clary — and the Lions making 15-of-20 from the line, including 11-13 in the second half.
And, of course, keeping the Badgers at bay in the final minutes with clutch baskets and free throws.
Things flipped, however, for the Lions on the 20th against Ohio State at the Value City Arena in Columbus.
Instead of a confident, smooth start, the Lions struggled throughout the first half against the revenge-stoked Buckeyes, and they scored just 19 points before the break.
OSU took the lead by 14 points, 33-19, and although Penn State piled up 48 in the second half, the Buckeyes kept pace in a 79-67 win.
After Penn State’s earlier come-from-behind win at the Jordan Center, Ohio State was primed to strike back and, to the delight of the over 15,000 fans in attendance, its defense was able to set the tone. OSU held the Lions to just 7-32 from the field in the first 20 minutes.
Things improved for PSU, but not enough to make up the deficit, and it fell to 9-10 overall for the year.
Clary (13 points), Kern (12) and Baldwin (10), along with 13 by Puff Johnson, were the high scorers for Penn State, while Wahab grabbed 10 rebounds and Johnson got 7.
Ohio State improved to 13-5 overall and 3-4 in the conference.
Next up for the Lions will be the THON game on Saturday, Jan. 27, against Minnesota at the Jordan Center, followed by trips to Rutgers (Jan. 31) and Indiana (Feb. 3).
