Penn St. @ Wisconsin preview

Penn St. at Wisconsin

Last Meeting ( Jan 6, 2019 ) Wisconsin 71, Penn St. 52

No. 18 Wisconsin looks to continue its decade-long dominance over Penn State when it hosts the Nittany Lions on Saturday. The Badgers have won 11 consecutive meetings with Penn State, including a comfortable 71-52 victory in their first matchup of the season on Jan. 6, and hope to stretch their home unbeaten streak in the rivalry to 19 games while staying in the hunt for a top-four finish, which ensures a double-bye in the Big Ten Tournament.

Wisconsin dropped a 75-72 double-overtime decision to Indiana on Tuesday and hopes to bounce back from its slip and reach at least 12 conference wins for the ninth time in the last 10 years. Penn State is playing its best basketball of the season after an impressive 78-61 win against 20th-ranked Maryland on Wednesday. The Nittany Lions won five of their seven games in February following an 0-10 start in conference play and hope to ride the momentum to their first regular-season victory against Wisconsin since a 56-52 triumph on Jan. 29, 2011. Penn State has found its scoring touch, averaging 83 points over its last four wins and aims to continue its climb up the conference standings by knocking off its fourth ranked opponent of the season.

TV: 1 p.m. ET, Big Ten Network

ABOUT PENN STATE (12-16, 5-12 Big Ten): Lamar Stevens poured in a game-high 24 points and pulled down five rebounds in the win against Maryland to move into seventh-place on the program's all-time scoring list with 1,580 points. Myles Dread drilled three 3-pointers en route to 17 points against the Terrapins to move within four triples of equaling the Penn State freshman record for most 3-pointers in a season held by Pete Lisicky (68), who did it in 1994-95. "As a staff you want to be the best you can be by the end of the year and we're doing that," Penn State coach Patrick Chambers told reporters. "You want your players to continue to develop and get better and you're seeing that."

ABOUT WISCONSIN (19-9, 11-6): Ethan Happ racked up 23 points, 11 rebounds and four assists before fouling out in the loss to Indiana, but still recorded his sixth double-double in the last seven games. Khalil Iverson scored 15 points while D'Mitrik Trice finished with 12, but the Badgers were doomed by a 13-of-25 performance from the free-throw line, including five straight misses in the second overtime. "In crunch time you need to knock them down because if we make those it's a different ballgame," Happ told reporters. "But there were plenty of opportunities on both ends of the floor that we didn't take advantage of down the stretch."

TIP-INS

1. Wisconsin has won 24 of the last 25 regular-season meetings with Penn State.

2. Happ is tied for second nationally in double-doubles (19).

3. Stevens has started 100 consecutive games, which is the second-longest active streak in Division I.

PREDICTION: Wisconsin 66, Penn State 62