In a game that only solidified the Player of the Year race, #18 Iowa has defeated #16 Penn State with a score of 77-68. This game evened the series for the year and also evened out their conference records to 11-7, putting them both at 3rd in the Big Ten.
To start off the game, the game was fairly close with Penn State holding a small 2-3 point lead until they began to pull away with 6 minutes left in the first half. Iowa quickly began to mount a comeback and ended up leading 35-34 at halftime. In the first half, Luka Garza struggled to find his shot and freshman Seth Lundy was lighting it up for the Nittany Lions. In the second half, it was all Iowa as they rode a 8-11 point lead until the end of the game where they ending up winning 77-68.
Statistically wise, its clear to see that Penn State’s biggest problem was ball movement clearly shown by their lack in assists as Iowa had 22 and Penn State had 13. For the Hawkeyes, Garza unsurprisingly led the team in points with 25 on 11 of 18 shooting. For the Nittany Lions, they were led by both Lamar Stevens (20 points) and Seth Lundy (19 points). If Penn State wants to get back on the right track for a 3 or 4 seed, they are going to need to find better ways to hit their threes and get more open shots. For Iowa, finding a way to feed Garza the ball and having him find other players when he is double teamed is the key to success for the Hawkeyes.