STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Penn State Basketball took care of business, defeating the Rider Broncs 90-63 at the Bryce Jordan Center.
Penn State was led by Kanye Clary as normal, scoring 29 points and adding in 3 assists and a rebound. Ace Baldwin added 10 points and 9 assists. The Nittany Lions came out strong and the Broncs from Rider did not. Rider’s Head Coach Kevin Baggett was forced to call three (!) first half timeouts, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Penn State onslaught. Rider didn’t reach double digits until the 5:22 mark and the Nittany Lions led 44-24 going into the halftime break.
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Is Rebounding a Concern for Penn State Basketball?
Rider is a strong rebounding team and did end up outrebounding Penn State by three, 33-30. The Broncs were able to control the game a bit more in the second half, as evidenced by the Nittany Lions ‘only’ winning the second half by seven. Rider was able to cut the margin to 12 but Penn State Basketball responded with a 12-0 run, capped off by a D’Marco Dunn three and a Puff Johnson layup, forcing Rider to call their last timeout. Dunn finished with 12 points off the bench and Johnson added 8 of his own to go along with 6 rebounds. The second half will give Penn State Head Coach Mike Rhoades some things to work on before they turn to conference play. Turnovers and rebounding continue to be an issue, but a strong showing from the bench (27 points) is a nice change for the Nittany Lions.
What’s Next for Penn State Basketball
Penn State heads on the road to the Breslin Center to take on Michigan State on Thursday, January 4th at 7:00 pm before heading to the Palestra in Philadelphia to host Michigan on Sunday.
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NittanyCentral is his second reporting job following the Men's Basketball program. He co-founded and co-hosts the Shots Gotta Fall - The Penn State Basketball Podcast (the premiere, the best, the only) with Steve Travis.
Smith's most proud moment covering the team was seeing the national No. 9 ranking during Pat Chambers' last year. His most embarrassing moment was spending almost a thousand dollars to travel 2,000 miles in 46 hours to watch the Nittany Lions lose to Temple in the 2011 NCAA Tournament (screw you Juan Fernandez).
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