Nick Martinelli tied his career high with 34 points as Northwestern ran away from Penn State in the second half as the Wildcats took down the Nittany Lions 94-73 on Thursday night in Evanston, Ill.
Martinelli, the fourth-leading scorer in the country, led Northwestern (10-11, 2-8 Big Ten) once again on 13 of 19 shooting overall and 4 of 7 from behind the arc. Tre Singleton chipped in 17 points and a career-high 18 rebounds to go along with two blocks.
Angelo Ciaravino dropped 20 points off the bench and Jake West dished out 13 assists.
Penn State (9-12, 0-10) remains winless in conference play. Kayden Mingo led the way with 15 points and Ivan Juric dropped 14 while Josh Reed and Freddie Dilione V each had 11.
Northwestern set a season high with 12 made treys and only missed 10 (54.5%).
The Wildcats started to impose their dominance in the second half as part of a 11-3 run to increase the lead to double digits for the first time. Martinelli continued his onslaught with another 3 and a pull-up jumper to bring Northwestern’s lead to 60-47 with 14:37 to play.
Penn State quickly answered with a swift 8-0 run after a dunk from Juric to cut the lead back to 60-55 with 12:01 left.
But once again the Wildcats anchored down to extend their lead, this time with a 14-2 run. Martinelli scored 10 of the points during the run and Northwestern blew the game open to 81-63 with 4:56 left.
It was a back-and-forth first half that featured eight lead changes, and the teams were deadlocked seven times.
Singleton made a nifty fast break layup to give the Wildcats a 37-30 lead with 5:02 to play.
Juric responded with a personal seven-point run, which he capped with an and-one layup, to pull Penn State closer at 41-40 with 2:21 left in the half.
Martinelli closed his 15-point first half with a strong layup as Northwestern went into the break up 45-40.
Both teams shot lights out in the first half. Northwestern was 19 of 33 (57.6%) from the field in the first half while Penn State was 13 of 28 from the field (46.4%). The Wildcats also were hot to start from 3-point range, shooting 7-for-14 (50%).
The Wildcats had 30 assists on 38 made baskets for the game.
–Field Level Media
