For the first 17 minutes of Wednesday night’s game, it looked as though Penn State’s NCAA Tournament hopes were floundering away. A loss to 8-11 Iowa, a team with only one Big Ten win, would almost certainly put a defining blemish on the Nittany Lion resume. But that’s the nice thing about having seniors leading your team.

A 10-0 run to close the first half and a strong second half effort propelled Penn State to a 65-51 victory, keeping their hopes of playing in the Big Dance come March a reality.

Talor Battle scored 23 points while Jeff Brooks added 22 and three huge blocks to help the Nittany Lions even their Big Ten mark at 4-4. Jarryd Cole led the Hawkeyes with 11 points.

Penn State (11-8 overall) will play at home again Saturday afternoon when they take on #15 Wisconsin at 4:00 p.m. This will be their sixth ranked opponent in their last seven games.

Cleaning the Glass

• This was Battle’s 40th 20-point performance in his Penn State career.
• Andrew Jones nearly had a double-double, scoring nine points and grabbing ten rebounds.
• Due to early foul trouble on David Jackson and Billy Oliver, Coach DeChellis used the bench a bit more tonight. Both Oliver and Cammeron Woodyard played double-digits minutes.
• Iowa coach Fran McCaffery earned himself a technical after jawing with officials about a charging call on Zach McCabe.