Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1201503
M E N ' S B A S K E T B A L L I zaiah Brockington stepped onto the court a few minutes into Penn State's game against Iowa on Jan. 4 at the Palestra in Philadelphia. It was the 14th time in the Nittany Lions' first 14 games that he came off the bench, and against the Hawkeyes, he did what he frequently has done this season, giving his team an immediate lift. Brockington went on to score 23 points on 9-of-15 shooting, as the Lions de- feated Iowa, 89-86. The transfer guard had an electrifying afternoon on the of- fensive end, helping Penn State generate buckets when two of its best scorers, sen- iors Lamar Stevens and Mike Watkins, were relegated to the bench with foul trouble in the second half. It went exactly as head coach Patrick Chambers had expected it to go. "He is such a spark off the bench," Chambers said. "I really believe he's still trying to prove to himself that he's worthy of playing in the Big Ten. So he comes into practice trying to prove that he's a Big Ten basketball player, that he's a high-level player. "It's almost like he's trying to earn a scholarship. And I'm not going to tell him that he has one, because I want him to keep competing at a high level." Brockington has done just that in his debut season with the Nittany Lions. Forced to sit out due to NCAA restrictions during his first year on campus, the St. Bonaventure transfer has quickly established himself as one of the Lions' primary scoring options. Through 16 games, he was third on the team in scoring with an average of 10.8 points per game, trailing only Stevens (16.3 ppg) and Myreon Jones (13.8 ppg). Making his point production even more impressive was the fact that he was averag- ing only 22.6 minutes per outing heading into the team's visit to Minnesota on Jan. 15. Stevens and Jones were both averag- ing seven minutes more per game than Brockington, and the sophomore guard was the only one of Penn State's top five scorers who had not started a game this season. Against Iowa, Brockington understood the dicey situation that the Nittany Lions were facing with Stevens and Watkins forced to sit out much of the BOOSTER SHOTS Izaiah Brockington has come o the bench to give Penn State an oensive infusion | SIXTH MAN De- spite coming off the bench, Brockington ranked third on the team in scor- ing through 16 games. Photo by Ryan Snyder