When Lamar Stevens picked up his fourth foul of the afternoon in the second half of Saturday’s game against Iowa, it didn’t feel like anything was about to go the Nittany Lions’ way.

There was 11:48 left in the game, and Penn State was down two in the midst of a three-minute scoring drought. Pat Chambers’ squad needed some sort of spark to keep it alive in a humid Palestra gym, and it came in the form of Izaiah Brockington.

The redshirt sophomore guard managed to score the next six points for Penn State, as he nailed a mid-range jumper and worked his way to the free throw line on three separate possessions. While this was likely his most productive stretch, Brockington was clearly a key factor throughout a game where several of his teammates were far from their normally productive selves.

The transfer from St. Bonaventure who was forced to sit out last season finished his afternoon with a career-high 23 points, two steals, and managed to shoot an impressive 9-15 from the field.

“[Izaiah] was huge because Lamar was in foul trouble, we don’t have Mike Watkins that’s been playing so well all season long,” Chambers said. “So for Brock to step up and keep the ship afloat was big for him, big for his confidence. And we needed it, because [Myreon Jones] wasn’t at his best either, and usually [he’s] been super consistent all year long.”

While it was hardly a “bad” night for Stevens — who finished the game with 16 points — his foul trouble forced him to sit out much of a back-and-forth second half in which the Nittany Lions needed a consistent scoring option. Brockington’s performance once again proved that Stevens is far from the only offensive weapon on Pat Chambers’ roster.

Even without his dominant afternoon on Saturday, it was clear that Brockington was valuable for this Penn State team. He was already averaging 9.8 points per game and was considered one of the best defenders on the team, but his head coach would appreciate if you didn’t remind him of any of that.

“[Izaiah] is such a spark off the bench. I really believe he’s still trying to prove himself that he’s worthy to play the Big Ten,” Chambers said. “So he comes into practice trying to prove that he is a Big Ten basketball player. So it’s almost like he’s trying to earn a scholarship, and I’m not going to tell him that he has one because I want him to keep competing at a high level.”

For Brockington — a Philadelphia native who put up 30 points at the Palestra in a high school game — he felt right at home taking over on both sides of the court for the Nittany Lions.

“It was definitely a little bit of a conscious effort. Just knowing that two big parts of our offense were on the bench, ” Brockington said. “[Coach Chambers] has us go to game situations in practice where Lamar is in foul trouble or Mike is in foul trouble. So I knew that we were capable of playing without them, and I knew I had to come and definitely try to be a little more aggressive and just try to halt the run that Iowa was making at the time.”

In a game where plenty of Nittany Lions had reason to play a bit harder at one of college basketball’s classic settings, things couldn’t have gone any better for Brockington — who lost both of the games he played at the Palestra in high school.

“Just coming back for a third time and knowing that the only thing I was missing from the Palestra was a win. Definitely put a little extra emphasis on this game,” Brockington said.

While playing at the famed west Philadelphia gym is always a memorable experience for any young basketball player, Saturday’s game had a bit of a different feeling for the young guard.

“I feel like it exceeded my expectations because coming in here in high school you have about half the gym cheering for you,” Brockington said. “But coming in and just seeing the white out and having all of our fans there supporting us every step of the way, like that definitely gave us a big advantage.”