Penn State Takes Care of Marshall
Penn State men’s basketball (7-3) bounced back from a tough road loss to Pitt by beating Marshall 90-77 (4-5), holding the lead the entire game. The backcourt duo of Tim Frazier and DJ Newbill combined for 28 points, while the Nittany Lions frontcourt had their best game of the season, scoring 48 points.
From the opening tip, the first half was controlled by the Nittany Lions. Penn State jumped out to an early lead with Frazier and Newbill combining for nine points on their first four shots. The Nittany Lions were assisted by three free throw misses from Marshall, in the first three minutes. The Thundering Herd missed 14 free throws on the day and shot just 53 percent from the line.
Penn State’s offense was a well-oiled machine and shot 52 percent from the field, while also pouring in four three-pointers. Frazier had six assists in the first half, as Penn State moved the ball early and often finishing with 11 total assists in the half. The Nittany Lions had a balanced attack in the first, with four players finishing with more than nine points.
Penn State played suffocating defense, holding Marshall to 29 percent shooting in the first half. The Thundering Herd finished the game shooting 39 percent from the field. The Nittany Lions held all players not named Kareem Canty to 15 points in the first. The Thundering Herd freshman point guard did all he could to keep Marshall in the game, scoring more than half of his team’s points in the first half, but the Penn State defense was too much. Canty finished with 28 points on 10-19 shooting, pouring in five threes.
Donovon Jack had an excellent first half contributing 10 points, but he also added an impressive five blocks, while defending the rim and really igniting the Penn State defense. Jack finished with 19 points, with seven rebounds and seven blocks.
“Honestly I did not even know I had seven blocks, I was just out there playing hard doing what coach asked me to do, just trying to help on defense when I could because I knew I could help off my guy,” said Jack.
The second half was a closer contest, Marshall actually ended up outscoring Penn State 45-43 in the half. Penn State made an effort to limit Canty, as the guard did not score in the half until there were five minutes left in the game.
Tim Frazier played a fantastic game, and set the pace. The Thundering Herd prefer to push the pace and force bad shots, but Frazier would not let them. The senior point guard finished with nine assists to just one turnover, including several great passes to Ross Travis and Jack for open dunks.
“I was really proud of our leadership from Tim and DJ. They were dialed in at practice, they were dialed in during film and they were dialed in during walk through,” said Chambers. “That is the type of leadership we were missing last year.”
Travis also had a great game for the Nittany Lions. The 6-6 forward finished with an efficient 20 points on 5-9 shooting. Travis sunk nine of 11 free throw attempts.
The Nittany Lions next play Duquesne at home on Wednesday, December 11.
Tim Alvarez is a sophomore majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email tva5063@psu.edu.
