Penn State breezes past Northwestern -- again
Penn State picked up where it left off against Northwestern - while the Wildcats again failed to pick up anyone in a Penn State jersey.
The Nittany Lions scored on their first seven possessions to set the tone for a thorough 79-60 Big Ten victory Sunday afternoon at the Jordan Center.
Penn State built a 14-point halftime lead and expanded it to as much as 25 while breezing to its second win against NU in 12 days.
The loss ensures the Wildcats (18-11, 7-10) finish with a losing Big Ten record for the 41st time in 42 seasons.
"We haven't been a good road team all year," Wildcats coach Bill Carmody said on his postgame radio show. "And the last three weeks our defense has really been spotty at best-we just couldn't stop them. It didn't matter the personnel that was in there (or) whatever we were trying to do: man, matchup, 1-3-1."
The Nittany Lions (11-17, 3-13) hit 67 percent of their shots during the opening 27 minutes before tailing off to 57 percent once it became a blowout.
Junior point guard Talor Battle paced Penn State with 16 points and 6 assists while Chris Babb added 14 points as he drilled 4 of 5 3-point attempts.
Northwestern received a game-high 21 points from junior point guard Michael Thompson, who drilled all 5 of his 3-pointers in the opening 21 minutes.
Sophomore forward John Shurna, who entered the game as the Big Ten's No. 3 scorer (18.5 ppg), canned a pair of 3-pointers in the opening three minutes but didn't make another basket.
Shurna finished with 9 points on 2-of-11 shooting as the Nittany Lions made him the focal point of their helping man-to-man.
"Our only real inside threat is Johnny right now, especially on the road," Carmody said. "As soon as he got the ball, they were all over him doubling him. He couldn't move, he threw it out and (we) missed some open shots. It just causes problems for you."
With nothing happening inside, Northwestern took 14 of its first 20 shots from beyond the 3-point arc.
That ratio subsided to 28 3-point tries vs. 25 2-point attempts by the end, though that was more a function of the game's sloppy finish than any NU breakthrough.
"We're not getting anything inside and I don't know what to do about it," Carmody said.
The official stats showed Northwestern with 10 points in the paint. Starting center Luka Mirkovic went scoreless in 20 minutes, while Davide Curletti provided a career-high 6 points in 19 minutes as 7-footer Kyle Rowley (illness) stayed in Evanston.
Batavia's Nick Fruendt played all of his career-high 10 minutes in the second half and contributed a career-best 5 points.
Northwestern has two more regular-season chances to get a school-record 19th win. The Wildcats host Chicago State on Wednesday before traveling to Indiana on Saturday.
Carmody suggested he might adjust his starting lineup to take care of freshman swingman Drew Crawford (3 points in 11 minutes), who has been bothered by a hip flexor and sore back.
"He has not been able to practice real well because of it," Carmody said. "He's sort of in and out. I might have to put Mike Capocci in there to start just to give us a little different look."