Northwestern @ Penn St. preview

Last Meeting ( Feb 4, 2019 ) Penn St. 59, Northwestern 52

No. 13 Penn State looks to stay in the mix for its first Big Ten regular-season title when it hosts Northwestern on Saturday. The Nittany Lions have racked up seven consecutive wins, including an 88-76 road victory over Purdue on Tuesday, to climb within one game of ninth-ranked Maryland at the top of the conference standings.

"The love that these guys have for one another in that locker room is pretty strong and powerful,” Penn State coach Patrick Chambers told reporters. “If you didn’t have that, then you can’t win on the road the way we’ve been winning on the road.” Northwestern looks to pick up the pieces following a 79-54 setback to Michigan on Wednesday. The Wildcats have dropped eight consecutive games after they were limited to 32 percent shooting from the field en route to their most lopsided home loss of the season, and they hope to salvage some pride by notching their first Big Ten road victory since Jan. 18, 2019. “At the end of the day, we’ve just got to keep fighting,” Northwestern freshman center Jared Jones told reporters. “Everybody deals with adversity and you’ve just got to fight through it.”

TIME: Noon ET. TV: Big Ten Network

ABOUT NORTHWESTERN (6-17, 1-12 Big Ten): Jones scored a career-high 12 points to go along with four rebounds against Michigan to finish in double figures in back-to-back games for the first time. Fellow freshman Miller Kopp added 10 points, but he finished 3-of-12 from the floor and A.J. Turner tallied nine points as the Wildcats were undone by a 32.2 percent shooting performance from the floor. “It wasn’t our night and we got to bounce back and get ready for the next one,” Collins told reporters. “We got to get ourselves ready as we have two really tough road games ahead of us in the coming week."

ABOUT PENN STATE (19-5, 9-4): Mike Watkins matched his season high with 19 points and pulled down 10 rebounds in the win against Purdue to notch his seventh double-double of the season while overtaking Mike Lang (912) for second place on Penn State’s all-time rebounding list with 913. Freshman Seth Lundy knocked down six 3-pointers en route to a career-high 18 points, while Lamar Stevens added 16 points and five assists to help the Nittany Lions record four Big Ten road wins for the first time in program history. John Harrar tallied a career-best 13 points to go along with four rebounds as Penn State shot 51.9 percent from the field.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Watkins has recorded 33 career double-doubles.

2. Penn State, which is 12-1 at home this season, can reach 10 conference victories for the first time since the 2008-09 season with a win Saturday.

3. Kopp is shooting 87.3 percent from the free-throw line.

PREDICTION: Penn State 81, Northwestern 67