Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Penn State
Men's Basketball Takes Down Penn State, 55-49
2/16/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb 16, 2002
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) - Winston Blake scored 10 points and Northwestern never trailed in beating Penn State 55-49 Saturday. With the win, the Wildcats (15-9, 6-6) improved to .500 after 12 games of Big Ten play for just the second time since 1967-68, and guaranteed themselves a record above .500 for the regular season.
It was also the second Big Ten road win of the season for Northwestern, which has four games left in the regular season. That has happened only two other times since the 1976-77 season: 1993-94 (2 road wins) and 1998-99 (3).
It was another strong performance by the Wildcats, who committed just 11 turnovers and had 15 assists on their 18 field goals. Amazingly, NU had just one offensive rebound against the Nittany Lions, three days after snaring a Big Ten season-high 17 against a much taller Minnesota team.
Penn State (7-17, 3-10 Big Ten) closed within five points several times in the second half, including 54-49 with 16.7 seconds left on a 3-pointer by Sharif Chambliss. But Blake hit a free throw with 7.8 seconds left to put the Wildcats' lead out of reach.
The Nittany Lions hit eight 3-pointers in the second half and 11 for the game on a school-record 34 attempts, but could not get closer than five points from Northwestern's lead. The Wildcats, who took just one more total field goal (35) than PSU attempted from beyond the arc (34), shot 51.4 percent from the field and went 7-of-15 (46.7 percent) on three-pointers.
Jason Burke and Aaron Jennings also scored 10 points each for the Wildcats. Burke added a team-high seven rebounds filling in for Jitim Young, who was injured during the first half and only saw a few seconds of action after halftime.
Northwestern opened strong, hitting three of its first four 3-point tries go up 11-5 early in the first half. Penn State pulled within 22-18 on a Jan Jagla free throw, but the Wildcats held the Nittany Lions scoreless over the last 5:25 to take a 29-18 lead into the break.
Chambliss--who entered the game leading the Big Ten in 3-pointers made per game--led Penn State with six treys and 20 points. Jagla had 10 points and 12 rebounds.
