Northwestern led Penn State by six points at the half and by one with less than five minutes to go.
But Penn State got hot from beyond the arc down the stretch, and the Wildcats didn’t. That was the difference as the Nittany Lions posted a 67-60 home win to sweep the season series over NU.
The win put Penn State into the 10th spot in the Big Ten standings, ahead of Northwestern. If the season ended today, the Lions, and not the Wildcats, would get a first-round bye in the Big Ten Tournament.
Northwestern got off to a quick start offensively, hitting four of its first five shots from the floor, including a pair by Pete Nance, to take a 9-5 lead.
But Penn State came right back to tie the game at 15, in large part fueled by Sam Sessoms, who came off the bench and scored eight quick points on back-to-back three-pointers and a layup.
The Nittany Lions took a lead after Seth Lundy, who killed the Wildcats last month in Evanston, hit a corner three to make it 20-18 with 7:14 left in the first half.
From there, it was an ugly tug-of-war between two struggling offensive teams. At one point, late in the first half, the Wildcats and Lions combined to make just 2-of-22 field goals.
Eventually, Northwestern, with Boo Buie on the bench with foul trouble, went on an unlikely 9-0 run, taking advantage of a Penn State scoring drought of more than five minutes.
Despite shooting just 34% from the floor, Buie playing just nine minutes and not making a field goal over the last 3:14 of the half, the Wildcats led 28-22 at the break.
Penn State, after shooting just 26.7% in the first half, found its stroke early in the second half. The Lions hit seven of their first nine shots from the floor and took a 35-33 lead on a three-pointer by Dallion Johnson with 14:14 left.
The Wildcats clawed their way back and regained the lead after Julian Roper hit a three-pointer to cap a 7-0 run and make it 46-43. They had their last lead at 50-49 with 4:46 left.
That’s when Penn State heated up from long distance. Johnson, Myles Dread and Sessoms hit back-to-back-to-back triples to give the Lions their largest lead, 60-50, with just 1:23 to go.
The game looked to be over at that point, but Northwestern made a late charge, cutting the lead to four after a Buie layup with 39 seconds left. But the Wildcats missed three straight shots from the floor and Penn State made six straight free throws. Game over.
Nance scored 12 points, and Chase Audige and Ty Berry 11 apiece to pace the Wildcats. Buie wound up with a game-high seven assists and not a single turnover.
Johnson had 15 points to lead five Penn State players in double figures.
Here are our takeaways for the loss that dropped Northwestern’s record to 13-14 overall and 6-12 in Big Ten play:
Three-pointers killed the Cats: Northwestern has the worst three-point percentage defense in the Big Ten, and it came back to bite them against the Nittany Lions.
After hitting just 4-of-17 (23.5%) shots from long distance in the first half, Penn State scorched the nets in the second, hitting an impressive 9-of-16 (56.3%). Johnson led the way for the Lions by draining 5-of-9 threes, while Sessoms finished 3-of-5. Several of the Lions’ long-distance shots were open ones.
Down the stretch, the three consecutive bombs by Johnson, Dread and Sessoms effectively put an end to the game.
The Lions dominated the boards: Penn State senior John Harrar looked like Wilt Chamberlain on the glass on his Senior Night.
The Lions fifth-year big man pulled down 20 rebounds, 14 more than any other player on the floor, as he dominated play underneath. Six of them were offensive rebounds as he scored 11 points.
As a team, Penn State outrebounded the Wildcats 45-29. Even though Penn State didn’t take advantage of their largesse offensively – they outscored the Wildcats just 7-5 on second-chance points – Northwestern was basically one-and-done on most of their possessions.
It was a rough night for Audige: Northwestern’s shooting guard wound up with 11 points, but he got there very inefficiently, making just 3-of-15 (20%) shots from the floor.
Even though all three of Audige’s baskets were three-pointers, he took several wild shots early in the shot clock that wasted a valuable possession in a tight game.
Despite all his struggles, Audige took maybe the most important shot of the game for the Wildcats. After cutting the lead to four points, Audige missed a three from the top of the circle with 32 seconds left that would have cut the Lions’ lead to one point.
Why Audige, a streaky shooter having an off night, was entrusted to take that shot was a head scratcher.
It was a costly loss for Northwestern: Not only did the Wildcats feel the sting of getting swept by Penn State, but this loss puts them in a bad position for the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis next month.
Penn State, at 7-10 in conference play, moved into 10th place in the Big Ten standings, ahead of Northwestern, at 6-12. The 10th-place team will earn the all-important first-round bye in the tournament and won’t have to play on Wednesday.
Right now, the Wildcats would have to play 14th-seeded Nebraska on Wednesday. Even though the Wildcats are 2-0 against the Huskers this year, having to play that extra game will make any kind of a tournament run much more difficult to make.
