Coach Ed DeChellis was hoping his players wouldn’t come out of the gates flat on Sunday afternoon after a tough loss to Ole Miss less than 48 hours before. David Jackson got the hint.

Jackson scored 16 points, including Penn State’s first five of the game, while holding Furman star Amu Saaka (averaging 19.0 points and 8.3 rebounds per game coming in) to ten points and five rebounds as the Nittany Lions defeated the Paladins, 70-49.

After giving up a three-pointer to Noah States on Furman’s first possession, Jackson lit the spark for Penn State’s scintillating first-half of shooting by knocking down a three of his own to give the Lions a 5-3 advantage two minutes in. Jeff Brooks followed with another trey and with the help of 10-0 and 9-0 runs throughout the first half, the men in blue and white were up 41-25 going into halftime after shooting 60% from the field and 72.7% from behind the arc in the first 20 minutes.

States, who was Furman’s second-leading scorer coming into the game, had as many fouls as minutes played in the first half (3) and help did not come from anywhere else on the Paladin side of the court.

Jackson and Brooks started off the second half with three-pointers once again on assists from Talor Battle and Tim Frazier, respectively. Penn State pushed their lead to 24 with 11:57 remaining in the second half on a three by Taran Buie, but then took their foot off the gas for a “four or five minute stretch of lack of maturity” as DeChellis put it in his post-game interview.

“No team that we’re going to play is going to lay down and die for you,” he told his players during a timeout, a timeout where he had to put Battle and Brooks back into the game after Furman had cut the lead to 13 with five minutes remaining. The seniors put things back in their rightful place as back-to-back dunks by Andrew Jones and Battle put an affirmative end to the Paladin rally and gave the guys their fifth win of the season.

Battle led all scorers with 19 points while Brooks added 13.

Maryland comes to the BJC on Wednesday in an ACC/Big Ten Challenge game, starting at 9:15 p.m. Students are encouraged to wear white to the game as the Nittany Lions look for a signature early-season win. Last year, Penn State’s win over Virginia not only helped lift the Big Ten to its first victory in the challenge, but also pushed their winning streak in the challenge to three games.

Cleaning the Glass:

• Frazier is really settling into the point guard position, dishing out another five assists to go along with four points, six rebounds and four steals.
• Jones has seen his production go way down over the past two games. After scoring a single point and grabbing three rebounds against Mississippi, he scored four points and pulled down another three boards on Sunday. To do battle with the upper echelon of teams in the Big Ten, these are numbers that certainly have to improve as Penn State finishes up the non-conference schedule.
• Battle became the first player to score 1,000 points, grab 500 rebounds, and dish out 400 assists in Penn State history with his three boards on Sunday.