In what could be the first of many tough nights for a young Penn State team in the Big Ten this season, Michigan rolled Patrick Chambers' squad 71-53 in its conference opener by a score on Thursday night in Ann Arbor.
Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 26 points on 11-18 shooting, far and away stealing the show for the Wolverines. His teammates we not to be out done, though. Freshman and former Penn State commit Trey Burke, though he struggled from the field, was money from the free throw line, finishing a perfect 7-7 to give him 13 points on the evening. Couple that with the 17-rebound and 23 points on 8-14 shooting combined line of Matt Vogrich, Zack Novak and Evan Smotrycz and it's clear Michigan broke the Nittany Lions down with a real team effort.
The Wolverines used nine Penn State turnovers in the first half to take eight more shots than the Lions, plenty to stake them to a 14-point halftime advantage. From there, the Lions narrowed the margin, but it didn't matter. Michigan had already put the game out of reach.
Tim Frazier paced a Penn State offense that shot a paltry 39.6 percent for the game with 20 points, five rebounds and four assists. He also had five turnovers, however, in some ill-fated attempts to make things happen on offense for the Lions. Jermaine Marshall came on late to score nine points, good for second on the team, but he racked up four fouls before taking a shot and didn't get on the board until well into the second half, once the Wolverines had already put things away.
Penn State is now 8-6 and 0-1 in Big Ten play. Next up for the Lions is a 7:00 p.m. tip at Northwestern on New Year's Day before hosting Purdue next Thursday.