Back-to-Back Wins
What is a better encore than sweet revenge against the Buckeyes? How about traveling to Ann Arbor and handing the Wolverines a big fat L on their own home court! Complete with black and pink throwback uniforms in tow. Put their overall record aside for a second. In a league where road wins are hard to come by, this one was huge. Regardless of their recent skid, Michigan was once ranked inside the Top 5 (as was Ohio State) and Penn State led wire-to-wire to pull off the 72-63 victory.
The Nittany Lions were up by as many as 15 at one point and despite the refs best efforts to make it close in the waning minutes, Michigan simply had no answers on either end of the floor. If they hit a three to get the crowd rockin', we swished one of our own to sit them back down. If they made a good play on defense, our D outhustled them down the floor and got the ball back. This was no tit-for-tat kind of night, we dominated throughout the night, despite the single-digit differential in the end.
Lamar Stevens was a one-man wrecking crew from the opening tip-off and finished with 19 points and nine rebounds. Myreon Jones put in 16 and Curtis Jones Jr. (no relation despite the BTN announcers best attempts to label them ‘The Jones Brothers') came off the bench in the second half to pour in another 18 that crushed any hopes of Michigan ending their slide. Myles Dread had eight, Jon Harrar six, and on a somewhat quiet night, Mike Watkins added five points and four rebounds as he helped relegate Jon Teske, one of the conference’s best big men, throughout the game.
The win comes on the heels of sweet revenge over the Buckeyes this past Saturday and gives the Nittany Lions back-to-back quad one victories and five overall, a key factor in determining who gets invited to the big dance in March. As of last night, we sit at No. 20 in the ever-important KenPom rankings as postseason play inches closer. It marks the first road win over Michigan for head coach Pat Chambers and just the third overall for Penn State since joining the Big Ten in 1993. As for the throwbacks, the Nittany Lions are now 11-0 all-time in the regular season when they go with the original black and pink uniforms.
At 14-5 overall and 4-4 in a league as jumbled as the Big Ten is, a team that looked like it had lost its sizzle not too long ago now stand as good a chance as any to earn a one or even a two-day bye in the conference tournament. A week off between now and next Wednesday, when Indiana comes rolling into town, will only help their cause as everyone could use a little rest at this point in the season, including us!
The Nittany Lions were up by as many as 15 at one point and despite the refs best efforts to make it close in the waning minutes, Michigan simply had no answers on either end of the floor. If they hit a three to get the crowd rockin', we swished one of our own to sit them back down. If they made a good play on defense, our D outhustled them down the floor and got the ball back. This was no tit-for-tat kind of night, we dominated throughout the night, despite the single-digit differential in the end.
Lamar Stevens was a one-man wrecking crew from the opening tip-off and finished with 19 points and nine rebounds. Myreon Jones put in 16 and Curtis Jones Jr. (no relation despite the BTN announcers best attempts to label them ‘The Jones Brothers') came off the bench in the second half to pour in another 18 that crushed any hopes of Michigan ending their slide. Myles Dread had eight, Jon Harrar six, and on a somewhat quiet night, Mike Watkins added five points and four rebounds as he helped relegate Jon Teske, one of the conference’s best big men, throughout the game.
The win comes on the heels of sweet revenge over the Buckeyes this past Saturday and gives the Nittany Lions back-to-back quad one victories and five overall, a key factor in determining who gets invited to the big dance in March. As of last night, we sit at No. 20 in the ever-important KenPom rankings as postseason play inches closer. It marks the first road win over Michigan for head coach Pat Chambers and just the third overall for Penn State since joining the Big Ten in 1993. As for the throwbacks, the Nittany Lions are now 11-0 all-time in the regular season when they go with the original black and pink uniforms.
At 14-5 overall and 4-4 in a league as jumbled as the Big Ten is, a team that looked like it had lost its sizzle not too long ago now stand as good a chance as any to earn a one or even a two-day bye in the conference tournament. A week off between now and next Wednesday, when Indiana comes rolling into town, will only help their cause as everyone could use a little rest at this point in the season, including us!
