Penn State returns home with confidence, faces Iowa

After a fruitful road trip, Penn State heads back home to take on Iowa in Big Ten action at University Park, Pennsylvania, on Thursday. The Nittany Lions (11-11, 5-6 Big Ten) have just returned from back-to-back road wins (61-46 over Rutgers and 85-71 versus Indiana). Since beginning the season with four straight wins, they have not won three games in a row.

Kanye Clary, Penn State’s top scorer who was averaging 18.4 points before sustaining an unexplained injury on January 27, did not play in the team’s victory over the Hoosiers. A number of Nittany Lions have filled in for him during his absence, notably D’Marco Dunn, who has scored 24 points in the last two games after scoring 22 points in the previous five games.

“You saw that in the starting lineup these past two games, where Dunn is displaying glimpses of it. So, I’m pretty pleased of him,” Mike Rhoades, the coach at Penn State, said. “All I say is to never stop learning. Continue refining your skills. Continue studying. Continue to listen. After that, go play basketball since you’re skilled at it.” Zach Hicks (19 points), Qudus Wahab (14 points on 7-of-8 shooting), and Ace Baldwin Jr. (who scored a team-high 22 points versus Indiana) will also be relied upon for offensive output. Maybe they can keep winning when they play the Hawkeyes (13-9, 5-6), who give up 77.2 points a game. In their 79-77 victory over Ohio State on Friday, they precisely hit that number.

Luckily for Iowa, Josh Dix and Payton Sandfort each scored 15 points to complement Tony Perkins’ 20 points, who was lighting up the Buckeyes offensively. Hawkeyes forward Patrick McCaffery stated, “It doesn’t matter how you get wins, it just matters that you get ’em.” “There are definitely things we need to focus on, in my opinion. Teams are still working on several projects. Thus, there are some things that need to be fixed. However, making corrections after a victory is far simpler than after a defeat.” In their last six meetings during the regular season, the home team prevailed. The previous season’s meeting was won by Penn State, 83-79. –Media at the Field Level