Mason Gillis came off the bench to score a career-high 29 points on nine made 3-pointers as top-ranked Purdue took care of Penn State 80-60 Wednesday night at the Mackey Arena. Gillis came into the night averaging five points a game. His previous career high was 14 points.
The teams went back and forth to begin the game. Mikey Henn sparked Penn State with nine points early in the game and frustrated Purdue center Zach Edey. That was until the under-16 timeout. After that, Penn State started going cold from the field, and Purdue went on an 8-0 run led by Gillis, who made four 3-pointers in the first half.
Penn State cut into the lead at the end of the first half, starting to get better looks at the basket despite playing at Purdue’s slow, methodical pace. Seth Lundy made a three-pointer and putback on back-to-back possessions in the final 90 seconds to get Penn State back in the game.
Purdue led Penn State 35-29 at halftime, winning the rebounding battle 21-12 and shooting 6 for 18 from the 3-point line, while Penn State shot 5 for 15 from 3
Gillis made three consecutive 3-pointers early in the second half and scored 11 straight points to increase Purdue’s lead to 46-31. Penn State was out of rhythm, and its trend of slow starts in the second half continued. Purdue started to pour it on with easy baskets and alley-oop dunks. Purdue cruised from there to an easy victory as Penn State never recovered until the game got out of hand. Lundy rolled his ankle in the second half on a loose ball scramble and came out of the game with seven minutes left.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Lundy led Penn State with 18 points and went 3-for-6 from the 3-point line. Pickett had 12 points and seven assists, and Henn had 11 points on 3-for-6 from the three-point line for Penn State.
Edey contributed 18 points and 13 rebounds for Purdue.
Penn State will be back on the road Sunday afternoon in Nebraska. Tipoff is scheduled for 4:30.
Twitter: @bwalkerdadon
