Entering Saturday’s contest against then-No. 14 Wisconsin, Penn State men’s basketball (6-7, 3-6 Big Ten) hadn’t beaten the Badgers since 2011. With that win and another date set for Tuesday night in Madison, Jim Ferry’s squad now has a real opportunity for consecutive victories over a top Big Ten team.

There’s no doubt back-to-back matchups with the Badgers is less than ideal, but Ferry feels it’s just part of the deal in a stacked conference.

“Who wants to play anybody in this league?” Ferry said Saturday. “Everybody is so good. You think I really want to go on the road and play Wisconsin on Tuesday? We’re gonna, it’s the next one.”

Like it or not, the Nittany Lions could improve their Big Ten standing and improve to .500 overall with a win over Wisconsin. Nothing about Saturday’s victory was easy, and things won’t be any simpler on the road against a squad that dominates controlling the pace of the game.

Penn State clearly struggled in settling into Wisconsin’s unique style over the weekend, but an explosive second half proved that the Nittany Lions have the athletes to take over.

“We play unselfishly. We play one way. I kind of felt that going in,” Ferry said. “[Wisconsin] was 17-0 or 17-1 when holding teams under 60….We’ve only scored under 60 once this year. Again, we’re gonna have to do it Tuesday night, but I just think the way we play and when these guys are locked in, we’re a hard team to defend.”

After trailing by three at halftime, the Nittany Lions paced the second half thanks to a flurry of scoring from multiple stars. Myreon Jones led the way with 20 points, but Izaiah Brockington was close behind with 18, while John Harrar added an efficient 17.

Sam Sessoms tallied a nice eight off of the bench in his return, while Myles Dread had seven. All of these performances are listed ahead of star scorer Seth Lundy, who went one-for-six from the field and finished with just two points.

It’s hard to imagine Penn State got a 10-point win over a ranked team with that quiet of a stat line from the star forward, but that’s just a testament to the group’s depth.

The Nittany Lions clearly lack size, but hustle play and efficient scoring from players up and down the roster help keep them competitive with just about any team in the conference.

“I don’t need any validation. I know we’re a good team, I know what we’re doing,” Ferry said. “This league’s so hard that good team lose games, good teams go on losing streaks. We don’t focus on that noise. Everything is gonna take care of itself, we just gotta focus on getting better.”

Despite the sub-.500 record, Ferry remains confident that his group can take down the Badgers once again and keep rolling Tuesday night. The game will tip off at 8:30 p.m. at the Kohl Center and be broadcast on the Big Ten Network.

“It’s not like we’re gonna approach it any differently,” Ferry said. “We obviously didn’t play a perfect game, we didn’t play a great game, we played a really good game. There’s things we can do better…It’s gonna be a really challenging game for us so we’re gonna have to have a really good practice Monday.”