Penn St. Loses To No. 7 Indiana 72-49
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Victor Oladipo scored 19 points, and Yogi Ferrell added a season-high 15 to help No. 7 Indiana rout Penn State 72-49 on Wednesday night.
The Hoosiers (17-2, 5-1 Big Ten) survived a sluggish shooting first half with strong defense and used a fast second-half start to reassert their dominance in this series that has included only two home losses for Indiana..
Will Sheehey added 12 points for the Hoosiers, who matched a season-high by making 11 3s in a game.
D.J. Newbill had 18 points and Jermaine Marshall finished with 12 to lead Penn State (8-11, 0-7), which has lost seven straight overall and 12 straight on the road in league play. Their last Big Ten road win came March 6, 2011, at Minnesota. They lost both times to Indiana this season by 23 points.
But this was not the typical Indiana script.
On a night preseason All-America Cody Zeller had no baskets for the first time in his career and finished with a career-low two points, the Hoosiers locked up the Nittany Lions' on defense.
Penn State shot just 33.3 percent from the field, and struggled in the first half when it managed only one 3-pointer, shot 29.6 percent, had five players each called for two fouls and produced only 19 points — matching Ball State and Coppin State for the second-lowest point total in any half this season against Indiana. Northwestern scored only 17 points in the first half of the Hoosiers' 67-59 win Sunday.
It could have been even worse.
Indiana scored the first seven points of the game, then used runs of 8-2 and 12-5 to take a 33-19 halftime lead despite making only 8 of 14 free throws.
The Hoosiers wasted no seizing control in the second half, going on an 8-0 run over the first 65 seconds to extend the lead to 41-19.
With Indiana knocking down 6 of 8 3-pointers in the final 20 minutes, the Nittany Lions had no chance.
They got as close as 44-27 with 16:42 to play, but Indiana went on an 11-3 spurt to make it 55-32 and Penn State never seriously challenged again.
The Hoosiers have won two straight since losing last week to Wisconsin and are 12-1 at home this season.
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