Keisei Tominaga scored 17 points and Nebraska remained unbeaten at home in Big Ten Conference play, beating Penn State 68-49 on Saturday afternoon in Lincoln, Neb.
The Cornhuskers (18-8, 8-7) improved to 8-0 at Pinnacle Bank Arena in league games thanks to a stifling defense that held Penn State to 33.3 percent shooting. It was the 12th time this season holding an opponent under 40 percent and seventh time under 35 percent.
Tominaga was 6 of 14 from the field and 3 of 8 from 3-point range, while Juwan Gary had 13 and Rienk Mast 12 for Nebraska, which was just 4 of 21 from 3-point range but made up for it with a 36-18 edge in points in the paint.
Penn State (12-14, 6-9) was playing without leading scorer Kanye Clary, who missed two games last month because of injury and had struggled since returning. No. 2 scorer Ace Baldwin Jr. had 10 points but was just 4 of 11 from the field, with Zach Hicks leading the Nittany Lions with 13 including 11 in the first half.
Nebraska led 28-22 at the half, keeping Penn State scoreless over the final 3:10 of the first half. The Nittany Lions went almost four minutes without a field goal before Hicks hit a jumper in the first minute of the second half, but that was followed by an 8-0 Cornhuskers run to make it a 14-point lead with 16:43 left.
The lead grew to 51-30 with 9:47 remaining after another 8-0 Huskers run.
Nebraska didn’t score for almost three minutes to start the game but by the under-12 timeout had built a 6-point lead. The Nittany Lions tied it at 18 on two Hicks free throws with 6:14 left in the first half but Penn State would only make one more basket the rest of the half.
Penn State returns home to host No. 14 Illinois on Wednesday, while Nebraska heads to Indiana on Wednesday looking for its first conference road win this season.
–Field Level Media