Penn State Basketball Upsets No. 11 Wisconsin 87-83

The Nittany Lions deliver coach Mike Rhoades his first ranked win while handing Wisconsin its first Big Ten loss.

Author:
Max Ralph
Updated:
Jan 17, 2024 1:13 AM EST

In this story:

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. | With a snowstorm blowing through Happy Valley and classes canceled at Penn State, men's basketball coach Mike Rhoades offered students free tickets and discounted chicken baskets to draw them to a 9 p.m. tip-off against No. 11 Wisconsin. Those who attended rewarded the Nittany Lions by storming the Bryce Jordan Center court to celebrate the biggest win of the young Rhoades era.

Penn State defeated Wisconsin 87-83 for its first ranked win of the year and its first over a top-15 team since beating No. 14 Wisconsin in 2021. Kanye Clary (27 points) topped 20 for the 10th time this season, and and Ace Baldwin Jr. reached 20 (on 4-for-5 shooting from 3-point range) to combine for more than half of Penn State’s scoring. A.J. Storr scored 23 to lead Wisconsin, and 7-footer Steven Crowl had a 17-point, 11-rebound double-double. The Badgers (13-4, 5-1 Big Ten) arrived in State College with a six-game win streak and the Big Ten's last unbeaten record.

“This is what college basketball is all about. These are the moments,” said Rhoades, who paused a bit before answering. He met his sons in the crowd. “When you're in the office at 6 a.m. or staying past midnight or you're on the road recruiting, driving, eating a salad from McDonald's on the way up the hill. Moments like this are why you do that stuff. It's pretty cool.”

After leading by as many as 12 in the first half, Penn State (9-9, 3-4) faltered a bit to a four-point lead at halftime. The game featured a frantic pace of high-level basketball the rest of the way, with both teams shooting well over 50 percent from the field for a good chunk of the second half. In fact, the under-16-minute media timeout didn’t even occur until the 13:04 mark of the second half.

Wisconsin rallied to gain its first lead late in the second half, forcing seven ties and two lead changes in the period. Penn State's Qudus Wahab recorded his fourth block of the night on Storr with about a minute left that turned into a Clary runner, giving Penn State a six-point lead.

Just two possessions later, nursing a four-point lead with 23 seconds remaining, Penn State lost control of its inbound pass. With the ball tipping between Badgers and Lions three times, D’Marco Dunn corralled it near the sideline among falling bodies and fired a cross-court pass to Qudus Wahab, who stood alone and flushed a two-handed dunk that served as the dagger.

Frenetic play aided Penn State’s favor heavily, as it turned Wisconsin over 13 times. The Badgers had averaged less than 10 per game. Wisconsin coach Greg Gard gave a nod to Penn State for making his team play faster than it wanted.

“We got out of character early,” Gard said. “That gave them confidence, and we were never able to get that back.”

“That was exactly the scouting report: Make them uncomfortable because they like everything easy, slow,” Baldwin said. “That's why me and Kanye heated the ball up for court and just kept disrupting them.”

Rhoades adjusted his lineup Tuesday night, slotting Nick Kern Jr. into the starting lineup for just the eighth time. It was Penn State’s first new starting five in 10 games. Despite fouling out late, Kern stepped up with 15 points and played energetic defense, often against Storr or fellow Wisconsin star Tyler Wahl.

Sophomore forward Demetrius Lilley played a career-high 19 minutes and provided a big spark in place of Wahab, who played a season-low 12 minutes. Lilley’s stats weren’t fantastic at just four points and six rebounds, but he made a momentum-shifting block, facilitated offensively on the pick and roll and played ball screens well defensively.

“We don’t win the game without those two guys,” Rhoades said.

Last week, Penn State botched a 10-point, second-half lead against a strong Northwestern team and then was run off the court by Purdue. But the Lions weathered the storm — figuratively and literally — to pull off the major upset. Rhoades mentioned he “went at” his team a bit in Monday night’s scouting report meeting.

After willing their team to the first court-storming victory of their respective careers, Clary and Baldwin sported ear-to-ear smiles to suggest Rhoades’ message got through.

“Everybody who's proud to be a Penn Stater was down there,” Clary said.

“I ain’t gonna lie, I ain’t ever been in a situation like that,” Baldwin said. “It was a great feeling. I love that feeling.”

Up next

Penn State hits the road for its first repeat opponent of the year, playing Ohio State (12-5) at noon ET on Saturday. The Lions won the first meeting in the Bryce Jordan Center on the back of an 18-point comeback.