After starting off the season with a few wins at home, the Penn State men’s basketball team took a trip down to Baltimore on Friday evening to face Virginia Tech, another 3-0 team. It was all Penn State from the opening tip as the Nittany Lions took care of the Hokies in an 86-64 victory in the Hall of Fame Series.
[autotag]Ace Baldwin Jr.[/autotag] led Penn State with 19 points and 10 assists as he played in his hometown of Baltimore. Last season’s Big Ten defensive player of the year added three steals and a couple of rebounds. [autotag]Zach Hicks[/autotag] also had 19 points in the win and showed off a hot hand from three-point range with five 3-pointers.
Penn State also got double-digit point efforts from Nick Kern (16 points) and Freddie Dilione V (11 points). As a team, Penn State recorded 16 steals. Puff Johnson helped give Penn State some breathing room after Virginia Tech cut the lead to nine points early in the second half. Johnson scored seven straight points.
This is the third straight season Penn State has started the year off with a 4-0 record, and this was the fourth win over Virginia Tech in the last five meetings with the ACC school. This is also the first time Penn State has scored 80 or more points in four consecutive games since the 2019-2020 season.
Penn State will return home next week for its next game. Penn State will host Purdue Fort Wayne in the opening round of the Sunshine Slam.
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