Penn State men’s basketball (12-4, 2-3 Big Ten) was demolished by No. 13 Illinois (12-3, 4-1 Big Ten) in the State Farm Center on Wednesday night.

After holding an early 11-5 lead in the first half, the Nittany Lions collapsed as Illinois went on a 34-4 run during a 10-minute stretch. This loss put the Nittany Lions below .500 in Big Ten play.

How It Happened

After a minute went by in the first half with no scoring, Zach Hicks started the scoring for Penn State with a three-pointer. Illinois scored its first bucket right away when Tre White made a layup. Nick Kern got on the board shortly after when he made a layup to give the Nittany Lions an early 5-2 lead.

Hicks made two free throws before Ben Humrichous knocked down a three for Fighting Illini as the Nittany Lions held a two-point lead heading into the media timeout. After the timeout, Yanic Konan Niederhauser and Freddie Dilione V scored back-to-back buckets to increase the lead to six. However, Illinois showed its resilience with a dunk by White and a three by Humrichous to get within one. The Fighting Illini then took their first lead of the game as White made three free throws due to a committed foul by Hicks.

Right after D’marco Dunn missed a jumper to end Penn State’s drought, Morez Johnson Jr. scored a two-pointer to extend Illinois’ lead to four. After Ace Baldwin committed a turnover on the following possession, the first media timeout occurred.

The timeout didn’t pay dividends for Penn State as Illinois extended its run to 15 on a layup by Johnson and a three-pointer by White. After going more than five minutes without scoring, the Nittany Lions finally ended the scoring drought as Kern made two foul shots. However, the struggles continued for Penn State right after as Humrichous knocked down back-to-back three-pointers to extend Illinois’s lead to 13 heading into the media timeout with seven minutes left in the first half.

Out of the timeout, Hicks and Johnson Jr. exchanged buckets before Humrichous and Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn made back-to-back layups for the Fighting Illini. The Nittany Lions could not stop the bleeding as Johnson made consecutive free throws to increase Illinois’s lead to 21.

After Humrichous knocked down his fifth three-pointer of the game, Dilione scored a layup on a fast break to end Illinois’s 13-0 run. The game went into a media timeout with the Fighting Illini holding a commanding 39-17 lead. Konan Niederhauser committed goaltending before Gibbs-Lawhorn made two foul shots.

With 50 seconds left, Jahvin Carter knocked down a floater for Penn State. After Illinois’s Kylan Boswell missed a three-pointer on the following possession, Konan Niederhauser slammed down a dunk before a layup by Boswell ended the half with Illinois holding a commanding 45-21 lead.

The second half got underway with Ace Baldwin being ruled out due to injury and Kern scoring a layup on a fast break. Illinois got on the board right after with a mid-range jumper by White. After Kern split free throws, Johnson Jr. responded with a slam dunk. Kern and Johnson traded buckets before a made layup by White extended the Fighting Illini’s lead to 27 heading into the media timeout.

After Kern missed consecutive free throws out of the timeout, Illinois’s Will Riley scored a two-pointer before Kern responded with a layup. The Fighting Illini then scored a tip-in and Gibbs-Lawhorn knocked down consecutive free throws to give themselves a 31-point lead with less than 14 minutes left.

Dunn and Johnson Jr. exchanged buckets before Boswell knocked down a three-pointer to extend Illinois’s lead to 34. However, Penn State refused to go down without a fight and responded with back-to-back buckets by Konan Niederhauser and Dilione before a media timeout occurred with almost 10 minutes to go.

Penn State’s momentum kept on going after the timeout as Hicks and Carter made back-to-back layups to extend its run to eight. On the following possession, Gibbs-Lawhorn hit a three-pointer to end the Nittany Lions’ momentum. After Hicks scored consecutive foul shots, Illinois’s Jake Davis hit a three-pointer to restore its 30-point lead.

Dominick Stewart converted an and-one jumper to decrease Penn State’s deficit to 27 before a layup by Illinois’s Tomislav Ivisic sent us to another timeout with almost seven minutes to go. Out of the media timeout, White and Miles Goodman traded baskets before the Fighting Illini went on a 6-0 run to increase the lead to 35. Carter hit a three-pointer on the following possession, but Humrichous responded with a mid-range bucket to give Illinois an 82-48 lead. This led to a media timeout with three minutes left in the game.

The game came to an end as the Fighting Illini emerged victorious 91-52.

Takeaways

• After Penn State held an early six-point lead in the first half, Illinois’s defense started to make life difficult for the Nittany Lions as they only scored 10 points in the final 14 minutes of the first half while the Fighting Illini scored 40 points during this stretch to put the game out of hand before the second half started.
• The struggles on the road for Mike Rhoades and his team continued. All of Penn State’s four losses this season have come away from the Bryce Jordan Center.
• Ben Humrichous, who averaged 8.1 points heading into this game, scored 21 points with 18 of those points coming in the first half. With Illinois’ star guard Kasparas Jakucionis out due to injury, players on Illinois like Humrichous stepped up.
• Even though he didn’t make an impact before his exit, Ace Baldwin Jr.’s injury was a huge loss for Penn State. Baldwin has been averaging 14.8 points per game and has been a strong defensive asset this year.

What’s Next?

The Nittany Lions will try to rebound from consecutive defeats when they return to the Bryce Jordan Center to take on No. 15 Oregon at 4 p.m. on Sunday, January 12. The game will air on the Big Ten Network.