Penn State men’s basketball improved to 8-1 on the young season with its 87-76 win over Campbell Tuesday night in the Bryce Jordan Center.

Despite the hot start to the season record-wise, the Nittany Lions have had several faults in various games so far. Whether it be free-throw shooting, turnovers, or poor defense down the stretch, Penn State’s young squad hasn’t registered a completely dominant performance yet.

That trend continued with the Nittany Lions’ late-game push to overcome the Fighting Camels. While Campbell only led for 6:15, the game saw 11 lead changes. Penn State pulled away in the final five minutes behind a 1-for-8 stretch from the field for the Fighting Camels.

Penn State cleaned up its mediocre form from the charity stripe against Campbell, but the root of its struggles Tuesday night stemmed from its poor rebounding. The Fighting Camels out-rebounded the Nittany Lions 39-30, which admittedly isn’t the widest of margins, but the difference is more obvious when narrowed down.

Both teams totaled 24 defensive rebounds on the night, but Campbell snatched 15 offensive boards to Penn State’s two. That led to 15 Fighting Camel second-chance points to Penn State’s two, as well.

“It wasn’t perfect. We didn’t rebound well enough. I thought we had some really good defensive possessions, but we didn’t finish it with a rebound,” Mike Rhoades said postgame. “In Big Ten play, we got to get those rebounds.”

That sentiment is certainly true. If Penn State cannot fight for the tough boards against quality Big Ten competition and a ranked gauntlet on deck, it’s going to have a long season in conference play. And can the Nittany Lions really afford another long season after the disaster that was 2024-25?

Big Ten programs will not shoot 8-for-23 from deep and 10-for-19 from the free-throw line as Campbell did. Penn State’s success in those facets of the game made Tuesday night’s score look more favorable than it really was. The Nittany Lions escaped with a win, and the hole they dug themselves into was chiefly due to their poor rebounding.

“In the first half we had some really good ones and got out and ran. In the second half, I thought we got into the rotation a little bit and I didn’t think our guards ‘rebounded down’ we call it, or they got to get in there,” Rhoades said. “Rotational box outs or we rotate and the guard’s just got to run in there and clean it out.”

Rhoades said coaching the rebounding technique to generate the most success possible has been a work in progress, but Dominick Stewart has really solidified himself as the team’s leader in that regard. He also acknowledged Melih Tunca’s big board late that proved critical down the stretch.

However, Rhoades sustained that Penn State handed Campbell too many opportunities. He wants the Nittany Lions to be more aggressive and bury the hatcher later on. Fierce Big Ten teams will take advantage of that and never look back.

Freshman forward Ivan Jurić said postgame that he knows he has to be more consistent with his rebounding. As one of the team’s two seven-footers, Jurić has used his frame to rack up boards and give Penn State a fighting chance in its upcoming games. He said the coaching staff has been increasingly physical in rebounding drills to really drive home the aggressiveness that the Nittany Lions need to play with.