Michigan State Vs. Penn State: Nittany Lions Upset No. 19 Spartans 66-62

Needing a win to pull back to .500 in conference play and keep NCAA Tournament hopes alive, Penn State's seniors did what they had to do on Saturday against Michigan State as the Nittany Lions defeated the Spartans 66-62 in their second conference win of the 2010-2011 season.

Jeff Brooks registered another double-double for the Nittany Lions (9-6, 2-2) with 17 points and 12 rebounds. His fellow seniors also came up big. Center Andrew Jones turned in his best offensive performance of the season with 16 points, David Jackson added 11 points and seven rebounds and Talor Battle hit what would prove to be the game-winning shot with 18 seconds to play from the right corner.

It was a performance the players weren't afraid to fawn after following the game.

"We feel as if, when our four seniors play pretty well, defensively and offensively, we give ourselves a great chance to win," Brooks said. "Hopefully all four of us can keep this rolling.

The win over the Spartans (10-5, 2-1) gives the Lions their first win over a top-25 opponent this season. It also gets them back on a winning track after losing four of their past five games and in the middle of a five game stretch against top-25 opponents.

Penn State dominated the boards against Michigan State, out rebounding the Spartans 40-36 overall and 15-13 on the offensive glass. The Spartans had averaged about six more rebounds per game than the Lions, but Penn State made rebounding a point of emphasis and it paid off.

"Every game that we do a great job rebounding, we're in those games," Brooks said. "When we played Purdue, they beat us by 15 on the boards and we lost by 15 points. It's all a correlation."

Penn State also made up ground against Michigan State from the foul line. The Spartans struggled to a 10-20 effort from the stripe while the Lions shot 15-23. Penn State also found ways to contain the potent Michigan State front court combination of Delvon Roe and Draymond Green to 12 points, down from their combined average of just over 19 points per game.

For the Spartans, it was a deflating loss after opening conference play 2-0 and left coach Tom Izzo searching for answers.

"This was one of the most disappointing losses of my career" Izzo said. "I thought we had one of our best weeks of practice and we just didn't do the things you need to do."

The Lions got another big performance off the bench from red shirt freshman Jermaine Marshall, who followed up his 18 point effort against Purdue on Wednesday night with an eight point afternoon against Michigan State.

His teammates were very pleased with his contributions.

"He's a confident kid," Battle said. ("Not cocky," Brooks added) "You can just tell how he plays. He hit some big shots for us today. I said 'You don't know how important eight points off the bench is. Eight when we all (the seniors) finish is double figures is huge."

Penn State now prepares to take on No. 25 Illinois on Tuesday night back at the Jordan Center. The Fighting Illini demolished Northwestern 88-63 on Thursday evening and beat Penn State in both match ups between the teams last year.

Jackson believes the win over Sparty gives Penn State something to build on, though, heading into another tough contest.

"It's huge for us," Jackson said. "Michigan State's a great team. Us beating them and playing how we know we can play really gives us confidence. This just lets us know that if we can play with them and beat them and compete against them that we can play with anybody."

Delvon Roe slashes and scores to give Michigan State the lead. He was throwing those elbows around quite a bit, though. For as tight as this game has been called, it's surprising there was no call there.

The building is rocking now with just under two minutes to play as Andrew Jones tips home a Talor Battle miss from the perimeter. The mostly older crowd with the students still on break is in it now.

Huge stop for Penn State there with the Lions up one. The crowd has been whipped into even more of a frenzy with everyone one their feet. Zombie Nation is blaring over the PA. Starting to feel like a real home court advantage.

The fans are angry as they were looking for a tie up, but a foul was called. No way the refs were calling a tie up in that situation, though.

Talor Battle hits a huge jumper with under 20 seconds to play. That may prove to be the game winner. The Spartans need a three big on this possession.

Durrell Summers airballs a three pointer and Tim Frazier grabs the rebound. Salts the game away by hitting 1-2 at the line.

Penn State upsets No 19. Michigan State 66-62. We'll have a full game story later tonight. Huge win to move Penn State back to .500 in the conference.

Jermaine Marshall just got hit with his fourth foul, but he remains on the floor for Penn State. Ed DeChellis probably wants to ride that horse for all its worth right now.

Both teams suffering from cold shooting in this segment. There have been pretty wide open looks on both ends, but the shots just aren't falling. Looks like this game will be decided at the free throw line. Surprisingly, given how poor Sparty has been shooting from the line today, that's probably good news for Penn State.

Both teams will now be in he double bonus for the final 4:20.

No less that three Penn State coaches standing and shouting commands to the troops right now. Dan Earl, Lewis Preston and DeChellis are all up and hollering.

Jeff Brooks now with four personal fouls. Huge. He's one of Penn State's best free throw shooters.

With 3:41, Penn State leads Michigan State 60-59.

David Jackson has been gunning so far in the half. He had a quiet first frame offensively, but he's come out in the second looking for his shot from the outside.

Delvon Roe just picked up his fourth foul for Michigan State. He'll be off the floor for a while. Credit Talor Battle for isolating him one on one and attacking him on the baseline.

Jermaine Marshall looks for his shot much more than Tim Frazier when he's on the floor. Frazier tends to defer to Battle, so it's a change of pace to have a second guard gunning like that for Penn State.

Penn State dodges a big bullet as a Durrell Summers three rolls out at the last second and Jeff Brooks buries a jumper at the other end to give Penn State the lead again.

Penn State continues to out rebound the Spartans.

With 7:22 to play, Penn State leads Michigan State 58-55.

Penn State continues to maintain its advantage on the boards, no doubt a contributing factor for keeping this game close. The Lions have rebounded fairly well this season, but the Spartains are ranked significantly ahead of them nationally and hold a distinct size advantage. It'll be interesting to see if Penn State can maintain this effort with a short bench and significant foul trouble early in the half here.

The two teams have traded the lead since coming out of the timeout. The Lions went up by as many as four but the Spartans roared back to take the lead.

Jermaine Marshall scores on a nice slash into the lane. He has three points and has been active since he got on the floor.

Andrew Jones is safely in double figures and has been big offensively today. Penn State's scoring distribution has looked a lot better against Purdue and Michigan State. Of course, that won't mean much if the Lions can't pull off a victory here.

With 11:44, Michigan State leads Penn State 49-48.

Same starting five returns for Penn State to open the half and Andrew Jones opens the frame with a thunderous dunk to put himself in double figures.

Penn State just got stuck with four foul calls in one possession. Fortunately for the Nittany Lions, no one has more than two fouls, but nevertheless, it's never good to rack up that many fouls early in the half.

Jermaine Marshall has checked back in for Penn State. He has two fouls.

The officials spent about five minutes trying to fix the clock. Not sure what the malfunction was.

Penn State opens the half on a 9-4 run and has taken the lead. Penn State is getting open looks and playing some tough defense. Unfortunately, for the Lions, it cost them a bunch of fouls, but they're back in the game now and will have the ball looking to pad the lead when the teams come back.

With 15:45 to play in the half, Penn State leads Michigan State 41-40.

To close the half, Penn State went on a 6-0 run to tie the game at 29 but the Spartans answered with a 7-2 run of their own to take a five point lead into the half, 36-31.

Jeff Brooks leads Penn State with 10 points. Talor Battle has nine and Andrew Jones still has eight. Beyond that, there's not much scoring to speak of for the Lions. David Jackson has three points and Jermaine Marshall added a foul shot in the half for one point.

Durrell Summers leads Michigan State with 14 points on 3-4 shooting from 3-point territory. As a team, Michigan State is 4-8 from the perimeter. Kalin Lucas has nine points himself for Michigan State. No other Spartan has more than four points.

Michigan State has killed itself from the foul line today. Sparty is 4-8 from the line today and should probably have hit a few of those to establish a more comfortable lead. Michigan State let Penn State stay in the game against it when it was upset in Happy Valley in 2008 as the No. 7 team in the country. The last thing it wants today is to have foul shooting doom it again.

Penn State has maintained its rebounding edge and leads in that statistic 20-18 at the half. The Lions are really hitting the offensive glass well, leading the Spartans 8-6 there as well.

Talor Battle only has five points for Penn State so far. The fact that the Lions have been able to stay in the game without him contributing much scoring at all is good news for them. If they can hold out until their star gets going, Penn State might have a real fighting chance in this one.

Michigan State just completely whiffed on an ally oop. Oops. (pun intended)

Penn State has gone cold in the last few minutes allowing Michigan State to take a slim lead.

Tim Frazier commits a bad foul on Durrell Summers on the fast break, allowing him to get the bucket and the foul. Really no reason to give him an extra shot there.

Surprisingly, Andrew Jones is leading the Lions in scoring at the moment. Jeff Brooks is the leading rebounder with four in the early going.

With 3:48 to play in the half, Michigan State leads Penn State 29-23.

Penn State is out rebounding Michigan State in the early going and has hit the offensive boards well. Michigan State averages close to six more rebounds that Penn State, so the fact that the Lions are able to hold any margin over the Spartans is very good news for them moving forward. Rebounding is key against any team, but especially at the height disadvantage the Lions are against Sparty.

Jeff Brooks added another block for Penn State and has been playing aggressive defense in the early going. He needs to be careful, though, as Penn State has been beaten up badly when he's gotten into foul trouble. The Lions can afford to have him go off the floor if he doesn't have to or the offense risks going stagnant.

Speaking of foul trouble, Jermaine Marshall just picked up his second foul since entering. He'll need to be careful the rest of the way.

With 7:27 to play in the first half, Penn State still leads Michigan State 20-19.

Jermaine Marshall has checked into the game for Penn State with 13:06 to play in the half, replacing Tim Frazier. The red shirt freshman was huge for Penn State off the bench Wednesday evening against Purdue scoring 18 points for the Nittany Lions. He should continue to see significant minutes in place of the suspended Taran Buie if he continues to play at a level even close to the one he saw against the Boilermakers.

Jeff Brooks comes up with a thunderous block for Penn State that gets the crowd into the game for Penn State. He almost sent it into the third row.

Penn State has had a lot of success in the early going at attacking the Spartans' interior defense. Forwards Jeff Brooks and Andrew Jones have already combined for 10 of Penn State's 15 points. This bodes well moving forward as the Michigan State guards defend the perimeter well.

With 11:32 to play, Penn State leads Michigan State 15-14.

Bryce Jordan Center is filling in nicely for a game that is technically happening on Winter Break for students (classes start on Monday here at University Park). Lots of Spartans fan dotting the crowd, though.

Tim Frazier getting the start again at guard today despite Jermaine Marshall's big game on Wednesday against Purdue. The rest of the Penn State's typical starting lineup remains the same with Talor Battle, Jeff Brooks, David Jackson and Andrew Jones filling things.

Jeff Brooks gets Penn State on the board with a runner in the lane. The Lions will need a big day from him today to have a chance against this team.

Durrell Summers is already in the scoring column with two triples in the early going for Michigan State. Kaling Lucas has added on himself. Already, Penn State's inability to defend the perimeter is coming back to bite it. The Lions will need to clamp that down moving forward or it'll be a long day.

With 14:10 to play in the half, Michigan State leads Penn State 12-11.

Check out Penn State assistant coach Dan Earl's scouting report of Michigan State from over at the Penn State All-Sports Blog.