National Basketball Association
Penn St. 66, Northwestern 59
When: 7:00 PM ET, Thursday, March 7, 2013
Where: Welsh-Ryan Arena, Evanston, Illinois
Officials:
# Terry Oglesby, # Ray Perone, # Lamont Simpson
Attendance:
5517
By SportsDirect Inc.
Penn State 66, Northwestern 59: Jermaine Marshall and D.J. Newbill led the way with 18 points apiece as the Nittany Lions held off the Wildcats to win on the road for the first time in Big Ten play.
Sasa Borovnjak chipped in 15 points and 10 rebounds and Ross Travis pulled down nine boards as Penn State (10-19, 2-15 Big Ten) controlled the glass 38-23. The Nittany Lions have won two of their last three games after dropping their first 14 in conference play.
Alex Marcotullio went 6-of-9 from 3-point range en route to 22 points and Reggie Hearn scored 11 before fouling out in the final minutes for Northwestern (13-17, 4-13), which dropped a game behind Nebraska in the conference and clinched the No. 11 seed in the upcoming Big Ten tournament.
Penn State took a 34-30 lead into the half and got 3-pointers from Marshall and Newbill during a 10-2 run to open up the second period. Marcotullio hit three from beyond the arc as the Wildcats responded with a 13-3 burst to chop the deficit back to 47-45.
Another 3-pointer from Marcotullio gave Northwestern its first lead of the second half at 54-53 with 6:15 left. But the Wildcats would not make another field goal until four seconds remained as the Nittany Lions ended with a 13-5 surge to claim the rare road win.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Nebraska owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over Northwestern, which trails the Cornhuskers by one game with one left. … Penn State finishes up its regular season by hosting Wisconsin on Saturday. The Nittany Lions are already locked into last place in the Big Ten. … Outside of Macotullio, the Wildcats went 2-for-14 from 3-point range.
Top Game Performances
| Penn St. |
|
Northwestern |
|
Jermaine Marshall 18 |
Scoring |
Alex Marcotullio 22 |
|
Nick Colella 4 |
Assists |
Reggie Hearn 4 |
|
Sasa Borovnjak 10 |
Rebounds |
Reggie Hearn 5 |
|
Ross Travis 8 |
Free Throws Made |
Reggie Hearn 7 |
|
Nick Colella 4 |
Steals |
Mike Turner 4 |
|
Jermaine Marshall 1 |
Blocks |
James Montgomery III 1 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
| Penn St.
|
66 |
48.9 |
14-34 |
30-50 |
24 |
60 |
6 |
20 |
16 |
| Northwestern
|
59 |
34.7 |
16-46 |
34-38 |
30 |
38 |
2 |
16 |
15 |