When Seth Lundy took the court at the “Cathedral of College Basketball” in Philadelphia Sunday evening against Purdue, the hometown product saw the matchup as just another contest on the regular season docket. 

While Lundy had played at the Palestra dozens of times spanning from his tenure at Roman Catholic High School, which sits only two miles northeast of the esteemed arena, he and his teammates failed to keep pace with their typically flashy, three-point-centric offensive attack. 

The Philadelphia native converted just 6-of-15 attempts from the floor en route to the Nittany Lions posting a combined second-half shooting percentage of less than 37%. 

Following another second-half blunder from Shrewsberry’s group against the Boilermakers, the head coach hit the reset button ahead of a virtual must-win battle with Indiana to keep the Nittany Lions’ NCAA Tournament hopes afloat amidst a loaded Big Ten slate. 

“The last couple of days, I’m not going to lie, it felt like summer workouts,” Lundy said. “[Shrewsberry] was really hard on us, but that’s who we are, though. We’re a gritty team. When we’re playing gritty and we share the ball offensively, that’s when we play our best offense.”

After a dismal, 26-point second-half output three days ago, Penn State turned the page and tied its newly-set program record with 18 single-game three-point conversions Wednesday night at the expense of the Hoosiers. Lundy, who swiftly morphed into a near 53% shooter against Indiana, netted seven conversions from beyond the arc on just 12 attempts. 

The Philadelphia product tallied 14 points on 10 shots in the first half, which helped propel the Nittany Lions to a monumental 37-26 edge heading into halftime. But, after holding a six-point lead after the opening 20 minutes against the nation’s top-ranked crew on Sunday, Lundy and Co. knew the squad needed to make critical adjustments to avoid the reoccurring theme of a relapse. 

“We even changed our routine at halftime when we first came out,” Lundy said. “We did different drills so guys could stay loose, [and] so guys could stay ready mentally and physically.”

Within the first four minutes of second-half action, the Hoosiers cemented an 8-0 run, headlined by Big Ten Player of the Year candidate Trayce Jackson-Davis. The spurt helped the struggling Indiana unit cut the deficit to just five points. However, from there, the Nittany Lions caught fire, converting 12 of their next 14 shots, with most coming from distance. Comparatively, Penn State knocked down 11 total attempts across the entire second half against Matt Painter’s squad. 

“We know that sometimes in the second half, we don’t start off great,” Lundy said. “We knew that if we could play great in the first eight minutes of the second half that we’d have the game, and we did that. We dug deep.”

Heading into the Nittany Lions’ pivotal bout with the Hoosiers, Lundy needed just 21 points to reach the 1,000-point benchmark throughout his esteemed four-year tenure representing the blue and white. Just two go-arounds earlier against Michigan, the Philadelphia native’s longtime teammate, Myles Dread, notched the milestone in Ann Arbor. 

While Lundy is posting a career-high clip with 13.7 points per game, the two-way staple needed to exhibit a legacy-defining outing to check the 1,000th point of his long-spanning list of accolades while in Happy Valley. But, late in the second half, Lundy hit the benchmark emphatically with a one-handed slam to put the Nittany Lions up by 19 points. The final 85-66 tally stood consistent and now resides as the program’s largest-ever victory over the Hoosiers. 

“It’s a great feeling,” Lundy said on closing the 1,000-point mark. “Not a lot of people do it, and to be a part of that club, it’s definitely special. We have five [players with 1,000 points], and that’s unheard of, honestly. I don’t know how many teams in the country have that.”

Lundy’s surgical 25-point clinic marks his highest-scoring Big Ten battle since the scorer notched 31 points at the expense of Maryland on March 7, 2021, as a sophomore. Throughout his progression, Lundy has morphed into Shrewsberry’s go-to defender, rather than fending off Jalen Pickett as the team’s primary offensive weapon. 

But, even with Lundy’s mentality shift from his playstyle as a wide-eyed 18-year-old entering former head coach Pat Chambers’ program three seasons ago, Shrewsberry believes the forward possesses the ability to torch conference opponents nightly through simplification and quality shot selection. 

“I thought he just took what the defense gave him,” Shrewsberry said. “He competes so hard, he wants to win, and sometimes it will get the best of him offensively. Tonight, he stayed in rhythm. He took what the defense gave him, whether it was a shot, or it was a straight-line drive to attack the rim, [or] a drive to a pass. He kept it really simple.”

While Lundy has recently received heightened attention coming off of a season-shaping showing paired with notching a historic milestone, the veteran has arguably stood as the Nittany Lions’ most consistent asset since Lamar Stevens’ departure in 2020. The savvy scorer has increased his points per game tally gradually in every campaign, posting over 10 points per go-around each of the previous three seasons. 

The moment Lundy threw down a thunderous slam for his 999 and 1,000th points will be forever etched in his memory, and rightfully so. However, his complete body of work spanning over 102 career outings should celebrate the in-state product’s entire journey, not just the crowning end destination.

“For him to get 1,000 points, man, that’s special,” Shrewsberry said. “It takes some continuity. You have to do some stuff early as a freshman. You have to do some stuff each year and be pretty consistent unless you’re just going to blow it up… But, him getting to 1,000 is an accomplishment.”