Less than 24 hours after dropping a close overtime contest to LSU, Penn State men’s basketball managed to rebound for a win in the consolation game of the Emerald Coast Classic on Saturday afternoon. Penn State’s 60-45 victory over Oregon State was the first time Penn State held an opponent to 45 points or fewer since 2018 and the win was highlighted by a game-high 14 points from Jalen Pickett.
Pickett had an encouraging trip to Florida for the Emerald Coast Classic. In both games played by the Nittany Lions, Pickett led the team in scoring. On Saturday against Oregon State, Pickett also had a season-high seven assists as he distributed the ball well, and he added four rebounds to his final stat line.
Adding to the offensive mix for Penn State were double-digit efforts from Seth Lundy and Myles Dread, with and 13 and 12 points respectively. Without a dominant performance on offense from anyone on the court, it was important for Penn State to bring the intensity on the defensive front. And with both teams coming off overtime losses the previous day, head coach Micah Shrewsberry was proud of how his team adjusted.
“Last night’s game took a lot out of us and it’s a quick turnaround to get to today,” Shrewsberry said in his postgame comments, referring to Penn State’s loss to LSU on Friday night. “I thought we started a little bit sluggish, and you could tell, you could see we didn’t quite have our legs. Part of that was playing last night and it was hard. Oregon State did the same thing – they had to play an overtime game even later than we did. So both teams were a little bit sluggish, but I thought, even while we were sluggish early in the game, we still defended, we still guarded, and that’s something we want to do each and every game and that gives us a chance to win.”
The win against Orgeon State was Penn State’s first win of the season away from home in the Bryce Jordan Center. Penn State was 0-2 away from home early on in the season before topping the Beavers on a neutral court.
Penn State will be home for its next game, a home contest against the Miami Hurricanes in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge. Penn State hosts Miami on Wednesday, December 1 at 9:15 p.m. ET.
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