Penn State basketball avoids upset by defeating Lehigh 74-65

Penn State basketball picked up win #2 tonight in a 74-65 defeat of Lehigh. This was a tight one throughout, but the Nittany Lions were able to take control in the second half thanks to some big splash plays on defense and another strong performance by Kanye Clary.

Penn State basketball avoids upset by defeating Lehigh 74-65

The game was tight to begin thanks to some early scoring from Kanye Clary and Qudus Wahab, but the defense was a bit slow. When the offense dried up and the defense didn’t get much better, Lehigh was able to jump out to a 34-28 lead with about 4 minutes left in the first half. From there the defense tightened up and the offense found a spark as the Nittany Lions were able to tie it at 38 going into halftime. In the second half, it was more of the same for the Nittany Lions with one key difference, the chaos defense came alive. PSU was able to force 10 turnovers in the second and they often did it in the backcourt, leading to many transition buckets. Thanks to these splash plays Penn State was able to slowly but surely build a 10-point lead over Lehigh with about 5 minutes left that they more or less held to the final buzzer. 

As a team, the defense was sloppy on the night. They still were able to force 14 turnovers and hold Lehigh to 38% shooting from the field and 23% shooting from deep, but there is a lot to clean up. The team continually had miscommunications on matchups leading to a lot of open players for Lehigh. The rebounding battle was also very tonight again, with Penn State losing 40 to 38. Lehigh was led by Keith Higgings Jr. who had 23 points on 9-16 shooting from the field and 2-7 shooting from deep, 8 rebounds, and 2 assists. 

The Nittany Lions offense

On offense, the Nittany Lions stars came through, but overall it was still a bit disjointed. The team shot 45% from the field and 30% from 3 on the night. It was an off night from three for PSU with two best-projected shooters coming into the year, Zach Hicks and Leo O’Boyle, combining to go 0-9 from deep. Turnovers were still an issue with the Nittany Lions racking up 15 as a team, 7 alone from Kanye Clary. While that stat is rough from Clary, he had a good game overall. He had 20 points on 8-14 shooting to go along with 2 assists and 3 steals. Those steals all came in the second half and were huge for the Nittany Lions to build the lead out in the second half. Ace Baldwin Jr, off the bench for the first time in his college career, added 16 points on 6-14 shooting from the field and 2-5 shooting from deep. He got 3 steals of his own to go along with 2 assists. Qudus Wahab tallied his first double-double of the season with an 11-point, 18-rebound performance on 4-7 shooting. He also had 2 blocks and was stellar on defense in the second half, a huge reason the Nittany Lions were able to hold the lead. 

This was a sloppy matchup from start to finish, but the Nittany Lions were able to bring the energy and hustle to take control of the game in the second half. Penn State has another home game next Tuesday against St Francis PA at 7:00 PM. The game will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network. 

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