Penn State Lets an Opportunity Slide at Northwestern

The Nittany Lions play strong defense, but bad habits resurface in Big Ten loss to the Wildcats.

Penn State let old habits resurface Sunday in a 68-63 loss at Northwestern. The Nittany Lions sought their first four-game Big Ten win streak since 2020 and had a chance to move into the upper tier of the conference standings. Instead, they let an opportunity slip, packaging a sterling defensive effort with a shaky shooting day in Evanston.

The Penn State men's basketball delivered plenty of high points and strong performances, like limiting Northwestern star Boo Buie to 15 points on just 4-for-14 shooting and holding the Wildcats to a season-low 31.7 percent from the field. But Penn State coach Mike Rhoades’ offense simply went stale late in the second half, turned the ball over 11 times to Northwestern’s six and struggled to shoot 3-pointers (6-for-19, carried by a few late makes). It was an underwhelming game for a team that shot better than 50 percent from 3-point range in its past two wins.

With Northwestern leading by six, both teams went scoreless for over two minutes. Penn State’s Zach Hicks got a good late look from deep but missed before Nick Kern Jr. corralled one of Penn State’s three offensive rebounds. But Kern threw his next pass away, leading to a Brooks Barnhizer transition dunk that served as the dagger to Penn State’s win streak and secured Northwestern's regular-season sweep of the Lions.

Northwestern scored 18 of its points after 13 offensive rebounds, the most Penn State allowed to an opponent since beating Rider on Dec. 29. Buie’s 15 led Northwestern, but all five starters hit double figures for coach Chris Collins. Kern tied a career-high with 18 points and added seven rebounds, while Ace Baldwin Jr. was once again at the forefront with 17 points and eight assists in 39 minutes of action.

Changing style

It has been abundantly clear over the past four games that something changed for Rhoades and Penn State. The ball has moved faster and more efficiently offensively, 3-pointers have (generally) fallen at a better rate and defensive rotations have happened with significantly more conviction. While the shots didn’t fall as often Sunday and some careless turnovers caused Penn State’s downfall, the signs were still there of a more-together team.

Kern’s 18 came on the back of some really impressive cuts and passing. Hicks tacked on 14 with confident shooting, but he more noticeably was strong getting toward the basket and using his body to create space. Qudus Wahab made a season-high five blocks (of Penn State's season-high 10) and has continued his defensive turnaround.

The turning point

Trailing by four with under 4 minutes remaining, Penn State got a huge block from Wahab, which initially was called goal-tending. Northwestern benefited from the review by calling a play with about 2 seconds left on the shot clock. Though the Wildcats missed, they got a new shot clock after Penn State rebounded the ball out of bounds. Another offensive rebound from Northwestern led to a Matthew Nicholson dunk, giving the Wildcats a 6-point lead with 2:58 remaining. That was a difficult sequence for a hustling Penn State team.

The curious case of Kanye Clary

Penn State's win streak, coincidentally or not, coincided with leading scorer Kanye Clary’s brief two-game absence due to injury. Clary, averaging 17.9 points entering Sunday’s game, has seen his minutes decrease greatly in two games since his return. He played 14 minutes and did not score against Northwestern (going 0-for-3 from the field) while finishing at minus-15 while on the floor. Clary appeared to rush shots on back-to-back possessions in the first half, prompting Rhoades to make a substitution. Clary is 2-for-7 from the field in his last two games.

Baldwin has become the clear leader of this philosophy shift for Rhoades, and it may take some time to find how Clary fits back into the group while shaking off some injury rust.

Injury report

Forward Puff Johnson missed a second straight game for Penn State after Rhoades had labeled him day-to-day. Johnson’s offense has been streaky, but his defense and on-court leadership would be a boost.

Blossoming big man Demetrius Lilley, off a stretch of games as the first man off the bench for Rhoades, missed Sunday’s game after being listed as questionable. Lilley was wearing a wrap around his lower back coming out of halftime against Iowa earlier in the week.

Noteworthy

Baldwin made his 250th career steal. According to Penn State, Baldwin is the nation's only active player with 1,000 points, 500 assists and 250 steals.

Hicks (14 points) has three consecutive double-digit games.

Though its defense impressed, Penn State didn't generate its normal volume of steals. The Lions entered the game leading the Big Ten at 9.1 steals per game but finished with just three (Baldwin had two). Northwestern actually held a 7-3 advantage in steals.

Up next

Penn State returns home for a Valentine’s Day rematch with Michigan State. The Spartans blew Penn State out in East Lansing in their last meeting on Jan. 4, 92-61. Michigan State topped Illinois 88-80 this weekend.

More on Penn State Basketball

Penn State Basketball on SI.com

Ace Baldwin Jr. leads Penn State to third straight win

Penn State scores first road win at Indiana since 2014

Without Kanye Clary, Penn State wins on the road at Rutgers

Penn State women's basketball drives toward NCAA Tournament return

Makenna Marisa makes Penn State basketball history

Max Ralph

is a Penn State senior studying Broadcast Journalism with minors in sports studies and Japanese. He previously covered Penn State football for two years with The Daily Collegian and has reported with the Associated Press and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Follow him on Twitter (X)

@maxralph_

and Instagram

@mralph_59

.