Blue White Illustrated

Feeding off Stevens, Penn State did not fold. The letdown that 15,261 fans braced for did not come. With Myreon Jones, the Nittany Lions' sec- ond-leading scorer, out with an illness, Penn State's supporting cast did just enough to pull out a victory. Myles Dread followed Stevens' big moment with a 3-pointer in traffic on Penn State's very next offensive possession. Just like that, the panic within the BJC sub- sided. Penn State, up nine, was in control again, thanks to a huge shot from Dread. No one needed this breakout moment more than him, not long after a seven-game stretch that saw the 3-point sharpshooter make just 14 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc. "He's got to play with confidence," Cham- bers said. "I've seen a different pep in his step, so to speak. I think his confidence is there, and that's why I put him in the starting lineup." John Harrar gave the Nittany Lions eight points, playing 33 physical minutes in the post. Seth Lundy added eight points of his own, and Izaiah Brockington scored eight of his 10 points in the second half, getting to the rim in the midst of the Minnesota push to give the Lions some scoring when they really needed it. "We got really, really stretched out, and in- stead of playing good team defense, they were able to drive into the paint a little bit – a lotta bit," Pitino said, correcting himself. For the game, Penn State shot 50 percent from the field, even without Jones' contribu- tions, and held the Gophers to 43 percent. The Nittany Lions got 21 points from their bench compared to only seven points scored by Min- nesota's reserves. There were some empty seats scattered throughout the arena even though the game was announced as a sellout. But the atmos- phere was striking enough that Pitino high- lighted it during his postgame news conference when he was asked about the dif- ferences in this Penn State team compared to past ones. "When you get buy-in from the community, that team can beat anybody, but you can't do it in front of an empty arena," Pitino said. "It's so hard. Obviously, credit to that team to be able to fight through all of that and then kind of have their moment." Added Stevens, "Back-and-forth games like that, they're special, especially with the crowd that we had tonight." ■ SCORING SPREE Stevens led PSU with 24 points in a 90-76 win vs. Ohio State. Photo by Steve Manuel

• Cover