Just days after setting a program record for three-pointers made in a season-opening win, Penn State’s men’s basketball team kept draining from beyond the arc in a blowout victory over Loyolya on Thursday night in the Bryce Jordan Center. Penn State drained 16 three-pointers and got a balanced attack from across the lineup in a 90-65 victory over Loyola to improve to 2-0.
“I’m just proud of our guys for the second game in a row. How we played, the pace we played at, the maturity that we started the game with,” head coach Micah Shrewsberry said after the win. “That was the biggest thing that I talked to those guys about, is we want to be better every game we play. We want to get better. We don’t want to take any steps back, and I didn’t feel like we did that.”
[autotag]Camren Wynter[/autotag], a key transfer from Drexel, was Penn State’s leading scorer with 18 points and [autotag]Myles Dread[/autotag], [autotag]Kebba Njie[/autotag], and [autotag]Seth Lundy[/autotag] each scored in double figures. [autotag]Jalen Pickett[/autotag] was an assist machine with 11 assists in the game.
Penn State jumped out to an early lead on the strength of its three-point shooting but Loyola cut the Penn State lead to 21-19 with a run with just under nine minutes to play in the first half. Dread helped regain control with three three-pointers in the next five minutes to fuel a 14-4 Penn State run to help take a 40-29 halftime lead. Penn State kept Loyola at a healthy distance for the rest of the night.
With the 90 points scored on Thursday coupled with the 93 points scored in Penn State’s season-opening win against Winthrop, Penn State has scored 90 points in back-to-back games for the first time since December 2016. It is also the first time Penn State has hit 15 or more three-pointers in back-to-back games in program history.
A well-balanced team effort leads to another 25-point dub & a 2-0 start to the season 🤝#WeAre | https://t.co/eOktMypYk7 pic.twitter.com/ZwThEw107l
— Penn State Men’s Basketball (@PennStateMBB) November 11, 2022
2-0 ✔️#WeAre pic.twitter.com/QRC1Kf8Di5
— Penn State Men’s Basketball (@PennStateMBB) November 11, 2022
Next up for the Nittany Lions is a home game against Butler, of the Big East. Penn State hosts Butler in the 2022 Gavitt Games, an eight-0game series between schools from the Big Ten and Big East. Penn State is 1-2 all-time against Butler but has not faced the Bulldogs since 1992. Penn State is 2-1 in the Gavitt Games. The Big East won last year’s Gavitt Games, 6-2.
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