Penn State Basketball Topples 8th-Ranked Purdue

The Penn State Basketball program hasn’t seen a whole lot of media attention recently, at least not for the games.

They have, however, made waves on the recruiting trail as head coach Mike Rhoades, in just his second year in Happy Valley, just signed his second recruiting class which included the program’s top-rated recruit in history.

That changed on Thursday as the team put the B1G on notice with a dominant win over Purdue – a team currently ranked as the eight-best in the country.

The Nittany Lions took the lead with 12:31 remaining in the first half and never relinquished it. Once Penn State reached 10 points, they kept Purdue down opening up a lead as far as 27 points in the second half.

It all-around appeared to be a sign of good things to come. The defense was tight and forced 24 turnovers in the contest, with 14 coming off of steals. The biggest key was Penn State holding the Purdue offense to just 24 points in the first half.

Also a sign of good things to come – the Nittany Lions had 27 rebounds. Rebounds had been an area of struggle last year that doomed the team in many games, so seeing that addressed against a top team is great news.

The bench went 10 deep in this one, so while players like Dominick Stewart didn’t play a ton of minutes, freshmen like he and Jahvin Carter did see the floor and get some stats up on the board.

Notably, transfer Yanic Konan Niederhauser only took three shots in this one. He had been a key for much of the early season and added six points with a pair of rebounds, a block and a steal, but he wasn’t a focus for the Nittany Lions. That could also prove to be big as the team seems to have multiple players to lean on.

Ace Baldwin led the scoring with 17 points, but Freddie Dillione V (14), Puff Johnson (13), Nick Kern (12), and Zach Hicks (11) also all contributed over 10 points.

Baldwin led the way in assists with six while Kern led in rebounds with eight. Puff Johnson led the way with four steals.

Overall, the Nittany Lions shot 48.9% from the field and 38.9% from three-point range in the 81-70 win.

Fans stormed the court and it was one of the largest attendances for a Penn State basketball game on a weeknight (while classes are still in session) in recent history as the team seems to be developing a buzz around them.

Penn State is now 1-0 in conference play and 8-1 on the season with their only loss coming to the same Clemson squad that just topped fourth-ranked Kentucky.

Their next game is at Rutgers on Tuesday, 12/10.