Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1490816
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 19 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M FIVE YEARS AGO, 2018 After an up-and-down January that included losses to three of the Big Ten's worst teams — Wisconsin, Minnesota and Northwestern — Penn State en- joyed a stunning turnaround in the final month of the regular season. The Nit- tany Lions reeled off four consecutive conference victories, the last of which was a 79-56 shellacking of eighth- ranked Ohio State at the Bryce Jordan Center on Feb. 15. Guard Tony Carr poured in 30 points against the Buckeyes, giving PSU its first victory over a top-10 opponent since it beat fourth-ranked Iowa in February 2016. Carr had scored 28 against Ohio State in the teams' previous meeting in Columbus three weeks earlier, sparking an 82-79 win. After Carr's second scor- ing outburst against his team, Buckeyes coach Chris Holtman conceded that "we have a really hard time guarding him, and we've tried almost everyone on our perimeter on him. … We've run the gamut on different ways to guard him." Penn State coach Patrick Chambers called the win "another step in the right direction," one that lifted his team's re- cord to 19-9 overall and 9-6 in confer- ence play. "We have to continue this process," Chambers said. "This climb has not been easy, and we've fallen off the cliff, but we've gotten back up, and that's the amazing thing I'm seeing. We've gotten back up and continued to climb." 10 YEARS AGO, 2013 Penn State hadn't won a game since Dec. 29 when it welcomed Michigan to the Bryce Jordan Center in late February. The Nittany Lions were riding a 14-game losing streak, and with the Wolverines ranked No. 4 heading into their Feb. 27 visit to the BJC, there was little reason to believe that the skid wouldn't continue. But in the final 10 minutes of the game, Penn State went on one of the more improbable runs in its basketball history. The Nittany Lions outscored the Wolverines 33-12 during that span, erasing a 10-point deficit en route to an 84-78 victory. Jermaine Marshall led the way for Penn State, hitting a career-high 6 three-pointers on his way to 25 points, while fellow guard D.J. Newbill added 17 points and 5 assists. Chambers was getting set to conclude his second season at the time and was giddy in the postgame news conference. "That is Penn State basketball," he said. "Get a good picture of it, because that's what it's going to be. It was very good to see." The Lions never did get to the point under Chambers where they were beat- ing ranked opponents with regular- ity, but the future was brighter than it might have looked during their lengthy skid. Their 10-21 overall record (2-16 Big Ten) during the 2012-13 season was their worst in Chambers' nine seasons. Only twice in his last seven seasons did they win fewer than 16 games. 25 YEARS AGO, 1998 The Lady Lion basketball team's un- characteristic downturn continued with the regular season drawing to a close. Coach Rene Portland's team dropped five of six games to close out the regular season and headed to the Big Ten Tour- nament in Indianapolis sporting an 8-8 conference record, its second consecu- tive .500 showing in conference play after finishing no worse than third place in its first four regular seasons as a Big Ten member. But when the league tourney began Feb. 27, the Lady Lions suddenly looked like their old selves. They wrapped up the month with wins over Northwestern (97-76) and 11th-ranked Illinois (74-71) in the first two rounds and went on to reach the championship game in early March. Penn State wasn't able to overcome Purdue in the final, falling 59-49. But its performance in Indy served as a spring- board to a WNIT championship and set the stage for one of the most successful stretches of Portland's 27-year coaching tenure at the school. — Matt Herb This Month in Penn State Athletics History During the 2012-13 season, his first at Penn State after transferring from Southern Mississippi, guard D.J. Newbill scored in double figures in 28 of 31 games. That included a 17-point effort in Penn State's upset of fourth-ranked Michigan at the Bryce Jordan Center. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL