Both teams entered the game on the wings of a streak, and both left with it intact. Unfortunately for Penn State, it was a streak they wish they could have ended.
The UW men's basketball team overwhelmed the Nittany Lions 86-55 Saturday at the Kohl Center, winning its fifth game in a row and sending Penn State to its seventh straight defeat in convincing fashion.
UW (5-2 Big Ten, 15-4 overall) jumped on Penn State (0-7, 5-13) right away by rebounding well on both sides of the court and scoring at will in the paint. In the first--and deciding--half, the Badgers repeatedly took advantage of Penn State's slow perimeter defense by using dribble penetration to create easy shots.
\They really attacked us off the dribble early in the game, and we didn't do a very good job of handling that,"" Penn State Head Coach Jerry Dunn said.
Penn State could not handle much of anything in the first half. On offense, the Lions were cooler than a polar bear's toenails, shooting under 30 percent from the floor, committing eight turnovers and--probably most frustrating and perplexing for Dunn--failing to take advantage of their large size advantage inside.
Indeed, Penn State's interior was daunting on paper, with 7'0' sophomore forward Jan Jagla and 6'11' freshman forward Robert Summers in the starting five, and four other players in the 6'10' range coming off the bench, but UW dominated the paint, even without its only true big man--6'11' junior center Dave Mader--on the court for much of the time. For the game, the undersized Badgers outrebounded Penn State 39-22 and outscored their opponent 54-18 in the paint.
""I think our guys showed that positioning and heart has something to do with the difference in the total number of inches,"" UW Head Coach Bo Ryan said.
""Heart"" could also be used to describe the performance of sophomore guard Devin Harris. In one of his better collegiate performances, Harris did everything on the court short of dancing during timeouts. His final statistics were impressive--14 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, two blocks, three steals and only one turnover--but overshadowed by six or seven highlight reel-worthy plays he produced.
Midway through the first half, Harris stepped in front of a pass by Penn State junior forward Ndu Egezeke and took it the length of the court for a 26-11 UW lead. On the resulting inbounds play, Harris harassed another turnover out of the Nittany Lions and eventually fed junior guard Freddie Owens for an easy basket.
Later in the half, with the Badgers up 43-20, Harris gobbled up a bouncing ball on the Badgers' end, and at full speed, hurdled a pair of fallen players at mid-court. Showing remarkable body control, Harris landed without a hitch and fired a pass to Owens, who drilled a three-pointer and sent the crowd into hysterics.
Incredibly, Harris was not done, and would somehow improve on ""the jump.""
After halftime, with the game decided and fans expecting a less frenetic pace, Harris hooked up with freshman forward Alando Tucker for the play of the game. Penn State freshman forward Aaron Johnson went up for a shot but was blocked emphatically by Harris, who controlled the loose ball and took a few dribbles before lobbing an alley-oop pass from well behind the three-point line. The pass seemed initially bound for the bleachers, but Tucker used all 37 inches of his vertical leap to snatch the ball out of the air and slam it through the hoop.
After that, with nearly half the game remaining, there was really nothing more to do or say.
