National Basketball Association
Penn St. 81, Northwestern 78
When: 7:00 PM ET, Saturday, January 23, 2021
Where: Bryce Jordan Center, University Park, Pennsylvania
Officials:
# Edwin Young, # Larry Scirotto, # Lewis Garrison
Attendance:
N/A
By Field Level Media
Izaiah Brockington scored 21 points and Penn State used a late 10-0 run to pull out an 81-78 home win over struggling Northwestern in a Big Ten contest on Saturday night in University Park, Pa.
Seth Lundy scored 16 and Myreon Jones added 15 and eight rebounds for the Nittany Lions (5-6, 2-5 Big Ten), who have won two straight following a five-game slide.
Northwestern (6-8, 3-7 in Big Ten) got 19 points from Miller Kopp, 18 from Boo Buie and 17 from Pete Nance while shooting 49.2 percent, but dropped its seventh in a row.
Trailing 73-69 with 4:24 left in the game, Penn State scored 10 straight points, highlighted by five from Lundy and Jamari Wheeler's 3-pointer with 1:10 left to go up 79-73.
A trey by Nance and two Kopp free throws got the Wildcats within one. But after the Nittany Lions missed three straight free throws, Brockington hit a pair from the line and Northwestern's Chase Audige missed a long 3-point attempt to end the game.
Penn State, which shot 47.3 percent and made 20 of 26 free throws, scored six of the first eight points of the second half to lead 44-35.
However, Northwestern stormed back via a 12-0 run to take the lead. Back-to-back 3-pointers from Buie and Kopp began the spurt, which gave the Wildcats a 47-44 edge.
The Nittany Lions answered with an 8-0 run, paced by bombs from Wheeler and Jones, to lead 52-47.
Minutes later, Northwestern used a 7-0 stretch to go up 58-57 before Jones put the Nittany Lions ahead by two with a 3-pointer as the lead then went back and forth.
Following a sloppy start where the teams combined for six turnovers and 1-of-8 3-point shooting through the first five minutes, they each found somewhat of a rhythm.
In a first half that featured 12 lead changes, Penn State used a 7-0 run, highlighted by a Lundy trey, to lead 27-21 with just over six minutes to go before the break.
The Nittany Lions led by as many as eight in the first half, but a pair of Buie bombs fueled Northwestern's 10-2 run that tied the game at 33-33 in the final minute.
Jones, though, scored the final five points of the half to put Penn State, which overcame 12 turnovers through the first 20 minutes, up 38-33 at halftime.
The game featured 18 lead changes and nine ties.
--Field Level Media
Top Game Performances
| Northwestern |
|
Penn St. |
|
Miller Kopp 19 |
Scoring |
Izaiah Brockington 21 |
|
Boo Buie 4 |
Assists |
Jamari Wheeler 4 |
|
Pete Nance 7 |
Rebounds |
John Harrar 10 |
|
Miller Kopp 6 |
Free Throws Made |
Izaiah Brockington 9 |
|
Robbie Beran 2 |
Steals |
Myreon Jones 3 |
|
Robbie Beran 1 |
Blocks |
John Harrar 2 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
| Northwestern
|
78 |
49.2 |
11-26 |
9-12 |
16 |
23 |
2 |
8 |
14 |
| Penn St.
|
81 |
47.3 |
9-20 |
20-26 |
12 |
37 |
4 |
10 |
16 |
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