After facing off against two of the top teams in the country to open conference play, Northwestern snagged its first Big Ten win by handily defeating Penn State 70-54 Thursday night.
Sophomore point guard Dave Sobolewski led the team with 18 points and five assists, and senior forward Jared Swopshire chipped in 17 points and seven rebounds while the ‘Cats (10-6, 1-2 Big Ten) put up 70 points for the first time in five games.
The Nittany Lions (8-7, 0-3), struggling since losing star point guard Tim Frazier, shot just 31.6 percent from the field and 20 percent from beyond the arc. They were led by sophomore guard D.J. Newbill, who churned out 20 points on 6-of-19 shooting.
After Penn State jumped out to a 12-8 lead, the Wildcats responded with a 25-4 run to end the first half and headed to the locker room up 33-18. The lead never went back to single digits.
The ‘Cats came out strong to start the second half and extended the lead to 45-24. With a stingy defensive effort, they never let the Nittany Lions back in it.
Northwestern did not shoot very well from the free throw line, going just 17-for-26 from the stripe, but that performance was offset by their nine 3-pointers, three each from Sobolewski and freshman forward Kale Abrahamson, who contributed 10 points and 3 boards.
While the Wildcat backcourt shot well, the big men drastically improved from their drubbing in Minnesota. After combining for just 8 points and 9 rebounds against the Golden Gophers, Swopshire and freshman center Alex Olah put up a total of 19 points and 15 boards Thursday.
The ‘Cats will try to even out their conference record Sunday, when they battle Iowa at Welsh-Ryan Arena.