Three takeaways from Penn State basketball's win over Northwestern

Penn State basketball stormed back from a 10-point, second-half deficit to beat Northwestern on the road Wednesday night, 74-71.

The Nittany Lions have won two consecutive Big Ten matchups, and sit at 7-5 on the season and 2-2 in conference play.

Let’s dive into three takeaways from the game.

1. Seth Lundy catches fire

When Seth Lundy gets hot, he wins you basketball games.

And Lundy got hot in the second half of Wednesday night’s victory.

Lundy potted 15 points in the final 20 minutes of action, hitting three of his four attempts from beyond the arc. Twelve of Lundy’s game-high 23 points came in the last 9:51 of the game, helping the Nittany Lions claw back after the Wildcats took a double-digit lead.

He made the game’s biggest shot with 2:25 to go, rising up for a deep three-pointer that tickled the twine despite contact, and Lundy finished the four-point play to give the Nittany Lions a two-point advantage.

It’s not the first time Lundy has done this for the Nittany Lions, and it won’t be the last.

Penn State needed a hero on Wednesday, and Lundy came with his cape.

Lundy wasn’t the only one sinking tough shots down the stretch.

Siena transfer Jalen Pickett has proved adept at that during his short time in blue and white. Pickett finished the game with 18 points on 7-13 shooting, with several of those looks coming with a high degree of difficulty.

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2. Penn State overcomes NW’s hot three-point shooting night

Micah Shrewsberry knew Northwestern could take control of this game with its perimeter shooting.

He pointed it out in his pregame press conference, noting that, when Penn State fails to defend the three-point line, it usually loses.

It appeared this game was heading precisely in that direction.

Northwestern made 12 of its 26 attempts from beyond the arc, shooting 46.2 percent — 11 points above its season average.

Boo Buie — the half-brother of Penn State legend and Northwestern assistant coach Talor Battle — connected on five of his eight attempts from range.

Buie proved a major problem for the Nittany Lions, as he picked apart their defense to the tune of eight assists.

A few of those came to Northwestern big man Pete Nance, who the Nittany Lions frequently left in too much space outside. He made three of his five 3-point attempts on the night.

Ultimately, Penn State clamped down when it had to. The Wildcats made one triple in the final 10 minutes, and Penn State outscored them 30-17 in that span.

3. Two-big look gives PSU new dimension

It probably isn’t a coincidence that Penn State is 2-0 in games started by forward Greg Lee — a 6-foot-9 Western Michigan transfer who missed the nonconference slate due to an injury.

Between Lee and John Harrar, the Nittany Lions imposed a decided size advantage on the Wildcats. Penn State grabbed 40 rebounds to Northwestern’s 28 in this game, with Lee and Harrar coming down with 15 of them.

Jalanni White, who also played 10 minutes off the bench, added seven of his own.

Penn State grabbed three more offensive rebounds than the Wildcats in this contest, and also had two more offensive rebounds than Indiana in a win over the Hoosiers on Sunday.

Efficiency hasn’t been the problem on either end of the floor this season. Shrewsberry has often pointed out that his team simply gets fewer shots than the opposition, typically due to turnover problems.

Crashing the offensive glass with two bigs on the floor at once is one way the fix that issue, and it worked on Wednesday.