Without Kanye Clary, Penn State Grinds Out First Road Win
“It wasn’t pretty, but it worked,” or “a win’s a win” are about as cliche as it gets in the sports world. Yet Penn State men’s basketball welcomed those cliches after a 61-46 Big Ten win at Rutgers on Wednesday. Despite missing leading scorer Kanye Clary due to injury, Mike Rhoades picked up his first true road win as Penn State’s head coach.
The Nittany Lions (10-11, 4-6 Big Ten) and Scarlet Knights (10-10, 2-7) combined for 36 turnovers, Rutgers waited until the 13:41 mark of the second half to make its first 3-pointer and Penn State — after giving up a 16-0 run to start against Ohio State two games ago — began the game making one of eight shots.
But after enduring the abysmal shooting start, Penn State took its first lead 16-15 with 6:35 remaining in the first half and did not relinquish it. Heading into the game’s final media timeout, Zach Hicks made a 3-pointer that hit the rim with plenty of speed and simply died on the backside to convert the bucket. Then Ace Baldwin Jr. threw a pass directly into Rutgers’ hands before it was tipped back to him, allowing him to make a more accurate pass to Demetrius Lilley. With that layup giving them a 53-41 lead, the Lions finally found some luck on the road.
Rhoades’ team had responses for each mini-run Rutgers went on in the second half, an important improvement in its search to play a full 40 minutes, even with inconsistent offense being the night’s biggest theme.
Baldwin, Dunn step up
With Clary out after suffering an injury against Minnesota, Baldwin became Penn State’s clear go-to player on the floor. He delivered, scoring a game-high 15 points with 10 assists (three were added Thursday), five rebounds and five steals while playing all 40 minutes. Baldwin made a few errant plays that didn’t show up in the stat sheet but made many more highlight-reel passes in a dominant — and necessary — showing.
D’Marco Dunn just barely trailed Baldwin’s scoring output with 14 points while adding seven rebounds and three steals. Dunn’s outside shooting (2-for-4 from 3-point range) kept things afloat while most of the team struggled to find rhythm.
Defense bounces back
While trying to protect a 16-point lead against Minnesota in its last game, Penn State allowed 52 second-half points in a crushing home loss. Rhoades’ defense has been adept at forcing turnovers this season (Big Ten-best 15.7 forced turnovers per game) but has struggled overall at denying points. On the road, Penn State had not allowed fewer than 79 points this season. Wednesday was a marked improvement.
Rutgers’ shooting was an issue, as the Scarlet Knights finished just 34 percent from the field, including 1-for-17 from 3-point range. But Penn State’s defense was also suffocating, forcing 20 turnovers on 13 steals. Penn State controlled the glass, added four blocks and used sloppy play in its favor all night.
Looking for a spark
Rhoades mixed rotations early in the game, both trying to replace Clary’s juice and looking for anything to get going on the road. Puff Johnson stepped up with eight points in 11 minutes, while Jameel Brown (14 minutes) and Rayquawndis Mitchell (4 minutes) played their longest outings in some time. Qudus Wahab turned in a near-double-double as well with Clary out. He scored nine points with 11 rebounds, including excellent defense on Rutgers’ Cliff Omoruyi. Rhoades called the win “by committee” after clinching the first road victory of his Penn State career.
Up next
Penn State stays on the road this week, facing Indiana at noon on Saturday. The Lions will look to put together their first two-game win streak since beating Le Moyne and Rider in back-to-back games in late December.
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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.
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