Penn St. @ Rutgers preview

Last Meeting ( Jan 26, 2019 ) Rutgers 64, Penn St. 60

Rutgers is enjoying its best season since joining the Big Ten in 2014 and will try to continue its push to the middle of the pack in the conference standings when it hosts Penn State on Wednesday. The Scarlet Knights, who won a total of nine league games in their first four seasons in the Big Ten, followed up a narrow win over Minnesota at home with an impressive 86-72 triumph at then-No. 21 Iowa on Saturday.

"We got it rolling a little bit," Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell told reporters after the victory. "It's hard to win on the road, and it's the best league in the country." While the Scarlet Knights are trying to win their third in a row, the Nittany Lions saw a three-game run come to an end with a 61-57 loss at No. 21 Wisconsin on Saturday. Penn State led by as many as nine points in the first half but shot 24 percent after the break to fall to 2-7 on the road in the Big Ten. Junior forward Lamar Stevens posted his fourth straight 20-point game with 22 in the loss but he was just 5-of-19 from the floor.

TV: 7 p.m. ET, Big Ten Network

ABOUT PENN STATE (12-17, 5-13 Big Ten): After opening 0-10 in league play, the Nittany Lions are 5-3 over their last eight games with wins over Michigan and Maryland and they still have an outside chance of getting a single bye in the Big Ten tournament and avoiding a first-round game. "You base a lot of things off the first time around and have we grown up," coach Patrick Chambers told reporters after the narrow loss to Wisconsin, which won by 19 points at Penn State earlier in the season. "Our younger guys have really grown up and we've learned. We've learned from setbacks and failure and we put ourselves in a position to win and that's all I could ask for, especially in a hostile environment like this." Stevens has led the way and entered Tuesday ranked second in the conference in scoring (20.0) and seventh in rebounding (7.9).

ABOUT RUTGERS (14-14, 7-11): Freshman forward Ron Harper Jr. broke out for a career-high 27 points on 9-of-13 shooting in the upset of Iowa and he is 10-for-19 from 3-point range over his last four games. "He's getting better and better," Pikiell told reporters of Harper. "I think he's going to be a really good player, and we got a little dose of that." Leading scorer Eugene Omoruyi (13.2) was held to two points against the Hawkeyes while junior forward Issa Thiam came off the bench to provide 13 points in only 10 minutes.

TIP-INS

1. Nittany Lions senior G Josh Reaves had 14 points and nine rebounds against Wisconsin, and he leads the Big Ten with 2.45 steals per game.

2. Scarlet Knights sophomore G Geo Baker averages a team-high 4.3 assists - 5.8 over his last five games.

3. Penn State won its last two games at Rutgers.

PREDICTION: Rutgers 76, Penn State 75