The Penn State Nittany Lions entered the new year against the Northwestern Wildcats hoping to even up their Big Ten record to 1-1. Instead, the Nittany Lions gave up a halftime lead to fall to the Wildcats and to 0-2 in the Big Ten, 68-56. Penn State took a 26-23 lead into halftime, but the Northwestern offense picked up thanks to some early buckets by John Shurna and Drew Crawford to take the lead and never look back.
The Nittany Lions were outscored 45-30 in the second half, giving up the lead and getting dominated in the second half. Tim Frazier and Jermaine Marshall picked up 16 and 14 points respectively, but it wasn't enough to keep up with the scorers for Northwestern. For the Wildcats, Dave Sobolewski finished the night with 20 points while John Shurna finished with 17 points and eight rebounds.
For more on the Penn State basketball team, visit SB Nation's Penn State blog Black Shoe Diaries. For more on the Northwestern Wildcats, visit SB Nation's Northwestern blog Sippin' On Purple.