Purdue @ Penn St. preview

Purdue at Penn St.

Last Meeting ( Jan 17, 2021 ) Penn St. 72, Purdue 80

Purdue looks to continue its strong play when it battles Penn State in Big Ten play on Friday night at University Park, Pa.

The Boilermakers have won eight of their past 11 games and are making a run at gaining at least a No. 4 seed in next month's NCAA Tournament.

Purdue (15-8, 10-6 Big Ten), which is fresh off double-digit wins over Michigan State (75-65) and Nebraska (75-58), has limited its last 12 opponents to 72 or fewer points.

The defense was especially strong in the second half of Saturday's win over Nebraska as the Boilermakers held the Cornhuskers to 21 points on 9-of-32 shooting.

Another factor in the victory was continued solid play from freshman Jaden Ivey, who had a team-best 15 points for his seventh double-digit outing in the past 10 games. He also matched his season high of seven rebounds.

Ivey missed five games due to a foot injury early in the season and scored in double figures in only two of his first eight games. But he started to find his comfort zone in mid-January and has been a key cog over the past five weeks with his best effort being a 20-point showing against Northwestern in a 75-70 triumph on Feb. 6.

Ivey is averaging 9.0 points per game on a team that has just one double-digit scorer in Trevion Williams, who averages 16.0 points and a team-best 9.1 rebounds.

"You don't realize how long he is at times," Boilermakers coach Matt Painter said after Saturday's victory. "I thought he did a good job of just having some active hands and got a couple steals, but the more times he can get into space or the more times he can get into transition and get a head of steam, it's a positive for us when he's attacking the basket."

Penn State (8-12, 5-11) has an even hotter player in Myreon Jones, who scored a career-high 29 points in Tuesday's 86-83 road victory over Nebraska.

Jones leads the Nittany Lions in scoring (15.6) and 3-point baskets (50). Jones matched his career best of six 3-pointers in the sharp performance against the Cornhuskers, a win that ended Penn State's four-game slide.

"Really, what I just saw was how they were playing me," Jones said of his success. "I would say after the second shot, they were switching a lot, but they were miscommunicating a lot. So I just tried to move without the ball, and my teammates kept finding me so that's how I got going."

Jones has six 20-point outings this season, including a 23-point effort during an 80-72 loss at Purdue on Jan. 17.

Izaiah Brockington (13.4 points per game) also is playing well for Penn State. He has scored in double digits 16 times this season.

Purdue has won 10 of the past 11 meetings with the Nittany Lions. Painter is 24-6 against Penn State in his 16 seasons.

--Field Level Media