Penn State Men’s Basketball Holds Off Nebraska 76-65

Penn Sate men’s basketball [13-6, 4-4] picked up its fourth win of the conference slate with a 76-65 victory over Nebraska on Saturday afternoon at the Bryce Jordan Center. The win gives the Nittany Lions their third victory in four games against Big Ten teams coming off a 63-60 loss at Wisconsin earlier in the week.

It was Andrew Funk in the opening minutes, fouled on a made three-point attempt and making the free throw to put Penn State ahead 4-0 en route to an early 10-0 margin. Nebraska would work back into the game throughout the first half as the Nittany Lions missed open looks from beyond the arc but Penn State still managed to go seven-for-20 from deep in the opening 20 minutes.

Funk led all scorers with 16 of Penn State’s 29 first half points as the Nittany Lions managed to hold off a Nebraska surge to cut Penn State’s lead to a 29-23 margin at the break.

For a Nittany Lion team that has struggled out of the gates in the early stages of the second half all year long, it was no different on Saturday as Nebraska went on a 9-4 run to tie the game at 33-33 with 16:45 to go. Nebraska would never take the lead in the game as Penn State managed to answer each Cornhusker run with one of its own. Seth Lundy was particularly strong in the second half of play scoring 13 points while Funk added seven more to his total in the final 20 minutes of regulation.

Surprisingly it was a turnover heavy afternoon for a Penn State team that is among the best in the nation at taking care of the ball. The Nittany Lions committed an uncharacteristic 10 turnovers with the usually ball-secure Jalen Pickett committing seven of those miscues. Penn State would – in spite of its turnovers and fairly cold shooting in the first half – go on a 16-9 scoring run in the middle portion of the second half, turning a once much closer game into a much more comfortable margin in the game’s final stages.

One final surge by Nebraska cut Penn State’s lead to just six points with 6:31 to go, but baskets and free throws by five different Nittany Lions put a stopper on any late comeback attempts. All told Penn State shot a white-hot 68% from the field in the second half going 17-for-25 to hold off an equally impressive 53.6% rate by the Cornhuskers. Dallion Johnson added a six-point spark off the bench for Penn State as four different Nittany Lions made a shot from beyond the arc.

Penn State will now play three of its next four on the road, traveling next Tuesday to face No. 23 Rutgers before returning home to host Michigan. The Nittany Lions will head back on the road for clashes against No. 3 Purdue and a return trip to Nebraska.