Jalen Pickett explains how Penn State withstood late Indiana run, previews Big Ten championship

Penn State is heading to the Big Ten Championship game after a 77-73 victory against Indiana on Saturday, but it didn’t come without a scare in the final minutes.

The Nittany Lions seemingly had the game in hand, leading by 15 points with just 2:05 remaining. However, the Hoosiers refused to quit, catching fire to go on a 16-2 run to cut the deficit to one point with 33 seconds left.

Penn State responded with some clutch free throws from that point to seal the game, securing its spot in the title game. Senior guard Jalen Pickett explained the team’s mindset during the run in a postgame interview with CBS’ Tracy Wolfson.

“Just the resilience and the fight,” he said. “We came in here and we felt like it was another road game for us. We knew we had to play hard and we knew they were gonna make a run because they’re playing for a Big Ten Championship. We just fought back and we’re an older group and we’re connected.”

Pickett finished with a game-high 28 points (9-19 FG) in the win to go along with eight rebounds and four assists. Penn State led Indiana for the majority of the contest, including the entire second haldf after taking a 34-26 advantage into halftime.

The Nittany Lions also got 16 points and six rebounds from Seth Lundy, who finished a perfect 8-for-8 on his free throw attempts. That included two at the 18-second mark to once again make it a 3-point game as the defense came up with the stop it needed on the ensuing possession.

Now Penn State moves on to face top-seeded Purdue in the conference championship. The Boilermakers, led by 7-foot-4 center Zach Edey, have been one of the best teams not only in the Big Ten, but also the country all season long.

Purdue won both matchups against Penn State earlier this season, but Pickett hopes the third time can be the charm with the title on the line.

“It’s gonna take a lot of fight,” he said. “Matt Painter’s a great coach and they’ve got a lot of good players on their team. Probably the best player in college basketball in Zach Edey. So we’re gonna have to come out here and fight even harder than we did tonight.”

Tip-off for the Big Ten Championship game is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday and will be televised on CBS.