Penn State enjoyed a red-hot season opener and buried a school-record 18 3-pointers in a dominating win over Winthrop on Monday night at the Bryce Jordan Center in University Park.
The Nittany Lions buried 18-of-38 shots from deep and cruised to a 93-68 victory. The previous program record for 3s in a game was 15.
Jalen Pickett scored 23 points to lead the Lions, while Andrew Funk had 22 in his debut for Penn State after transferring from Bucknell. Funk averaged 17.6 points last season for Bucknell and will be counted on to be a major scoring threat for the Lions.
"It’s just finding the right spot and finding the right shot for our team," Pickett said of the offense, per the Penn State release. "There’s just so much spacing on the floor. I mean, Funk can shoot it, Seth (Lundy) can shoot it, you have Myles (Dread), Dallion (Johnson), and Caleb (Dorsey) shooting it well. You don’t really have to take those unless it was a late shot and you have to make something happen but, there’s just so much space. We were getting great looks all night."
Lundy had 10 points for Penn State, and Dread scored 12 off the bench, hitting four of his six 3-pointers.
Funk, who made six 3-pointers, had this to say about his strong Penn State debut:
"Obviously it felt really good coming in and getting the win like that and shooting the ball the way I did, but I don’t even know if I was a zone. I think a lot of (shots) were really open as a result of playing with really good players alongside me. I think coach highlighted it after the game we had 24 assists, which is ridiculous. So, if we are playing with that many skilled guys and we are going to share the ball like that, I think we are going to be really hard to guard, so I think it’s kind of a testament to the way our offense runs and our unselfishness overall."
Penn State got off to a good start and led 44-32 at the half. The Lions were never threatened by Winthrop and won in a rout, outscoring the Eagles 49-36 in the second half.
Micah Shrewsberry opened his second season as Penn State's head coach with a comfortable victory.
The Lions shot 55 percent from the field and 47.4 percent from 3-point territory. They also had 24 assists on 33 baskets, a good sign that the offense was moving the ball well.
Penn State's next game will be Thursday at home against Loyla, Md. After that, the Lions will host Butler on Nov. 14 in the Gavitt Tipoff Games.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Schedule
• Standings
• Statistics
SHREWSBERRY COMMENTS
Here are some of Shrewsberry's postgame comments, from the Penn State release:
Opening statement:
"Coming into this game and walking out onto the court, I was nervous. I was nervous because I recognized, and you guys may not realize this because of how the game went, but it's a good team. It's a good program. Hightower’s a little banged up so he's not 100%, but he's a first-team all-league guy. They lost nine games last year. They lost two or three conference games, one of them being in the conference tournament. They lost six non conference games last year, and then they're on the verge of going to the NCAA Tournament. We're going to look up in March and that team's got 23-24 wins to its belt. And that's not by accident. Mark Prosser is a good coach. They run good stuff, they really defend, and they play hard. So, credit to them. I think the anxiety part was I wanted us to play well. I really wanted us to play well, because I've seen us play well in practice. I've seen what we've been able to do in practice. I wanted to show up tonight and I'm happy for the most part. I'm happy with our play."
On his team's defense and forcing turnovers:
"We're not pressing. We're not in passing lanes. We're not overdoing it. We just want to be solid and disciplined in our spots. And that's when good things happen for you. That's when you get deflections when you're in the right spot. When you're playing with long arms, you're active. I thought some of those turnovers really helped us. I think the thing that really helps us is that if they get a rebound or a turnover, they have to outlet it. Everybody else is pushing it. Everybody else is bringing it in then the other guys are running. They're not, like, waiting around to see, you know, ‘Hey, I need to come and get the ball.’ We're running. We're pushing. We're trying to get layups. We're trying to get our feet set. We can keep swinging and get open threes. And you can't play set defense on every game. Every minute of every game, right? We had to watch that last year. That's what we had to do. But us being able to force more turnovers by just being disciplined and solid helps us offensively."
Did the team accomplish what it wanted in opener?
"I think so. I still want us to be better defensively. 11 three pointers is too much. It's too many. Early in the year last year, we gave up a bunch of three-pointers, right? We have to clean that up in terms of the threes that they got or threes that they're making, right? We can't give up threes when guys don't do anything, when they're not running actions to get a three, when they just come off the screen and the guy shoots a three in your face. Like, don't let Hightower shoot threes. Make him bounce it and put it on the floor. He made a couple early in the first half. Those are ones we have to take away. Eleven is too many, so we have to clean that up. We’ve got to be better. That hurt us early in the year last year until we could get it corrected. So, we'll watch it and try to get better at it. There were things I thought they would test us on the glass. I thought our guys did a good job of boxing out and holding them to one shot."
