 trailed by as many as 19 with 4:15 left in the first half, but scored the first nine points to start the second.It sparked a dominant stretch of play in the paint for the Spartans who took their first lead of the game with 14:29 to play when Tillman dunked to make it 51-49.Meanwhile, the Nittany Lions, who made 10 of 17 3-pointers in the first half, went 0-for-10 from long distance to start the second.The Spartans continued to keep Penn State (21-9, 11-8) at bay from there and used a 14-6 run to take their biggest lead of the night, 65-55 with 9:41 left. John Harrar made back-to-back layups to pull Penn State within two with 4:56 to play, but the Nittany Lions wouldn't get any closer.The Nittany Lions used a pair of first-half runs to take control early.They opened with a 10-2 advantage that featured two high-amplitude, alley-oop dunks from Watkins and a pair of 3s from Jamari Wheeler and Seth Lundy.Michigan State cut it to 12-11, but Penn State made seven 3-pointers over the next 7:47 as part of 29-11 run that made it 41-22 with 4:15 left.The Spartans scored the next eight points before Jones added his fourth 3-pointer of the half and Watkins jammed in his third alley-oop dunk of the half to make it 46-31 at halftime.THE BIG PICTUREMichigan State: The Spartans' looked like a completely different team in the second half to hold on to their current momentum. Their movement away from the ball kept Penn State's athletic defense guessing and helped Michigan State avoid what could've been an embarrassing loss.Penn State: A startling trend has shadowed the Nittany Lions for a few weeks now. They can't hold onto a lead no matter how big. They needed a last-minute 3-pointer from Dread to win their last home game after leading by double-digits at halftime and had all the momentum in this one until they went into the locker room.UP NEXTMichigan State: Hosts No. 19 Ohio State on Sunday.Penn State: Visits Northwestern on Saturday.)
Mar 02, 2020No. 20 Penn State looks for its 15th home victory in Tuesday's regular-season home finale against No. 16 Michigan State.The Nittany Lions (21-8, 11-7 Big Ten) are 14-2 this season in State College, where they will try to bounce back from Saturday's 77-68 loss at Iowa.Lamar Stevens tallied 20 points and 10 rebounds against the Hawkeyes for his fifth double-double of the season. Seth Lundy also contributed a career-high 19 points.Despite the loss, Penn State remains confident as the surging Spartans (20-9, 12-6) come to town."The league is so good, so relentless, so suffocating, especially on the road," Penn State coach Patrick Chambers said after the loss in Iowa City. "I know we have had some really good wins this year. We'll learn from this, we'll watch film and we're going to get better." The Nittany Lions will be searching for a series sweep against the Spartans, having won 75-70 on the road on Feb. 4.Penn State needs one more conference win to match its most in Big Ten play, set by the 1995-96 squad that finished 12-6. To do so, it will need more from Myreon Jones, who returned at Iowa after missing six games because of an illness but managed only four points.Coming up with late-season wins in the Big Ten is always a challenge, and Penn State knows it's a matter of executing and giving maximum effort."I've seen nothing like (the Big Ten) is right now," Chambers said. "It is my job that we stay in this moment and that we stay present on the task at hand. There is still a lot of basketball left." The Spartans will be looking for their fourth straight win when they arrive at Penn State.Michigan State picked up an impressive 78-66 win at No. 9 Maryland on Saturday.Cassius Winston paced the Spartans with 20 points and six assists, while Malik Hall added 16 points and Xavier Tillman had 14 points, 12 rebounds and six assists. Rocket Watts contributed 13 points to complete the balanced effort on the road.It was Winston's third straight game of 20 or more points.After winning in a hostile environment, Michigan State has the confidence to do it again Tuesday."We came in with a take-over mentality," Tillman told the Lansing State Journal after defeating the Terrapins. "Everybody was aggressive, everybody was confident, everybody defensively was tough on the boards. It really helped us take the crowd out of it and then we just had to play against (Maryland)." Michigan State has won its last three road games at Illinois, Nebraska and Maryland. Earlier in the season, the Spartans struggled for large stretches each game on the road.Not now."It felt a lot different," Hall told the Lansing State Journal of winning on the road. "It's just one of those, a feeling you get, when you pass to somebody, 'That's going in.' And I know it is, because you can feel it. You can see it, but I don't really know how to explain it." --Field Level Media
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