Stephens, Crispin come up big in cager road win

When the Penn State men's basketball team traveled to Northwestern yesterday for a rare Sunday game with the Wildcats at Welsh-Ryan Arena, the Nittany Lions knew they had a good chance of capturing their first conference road win of the season.

They just needed overtime to do it.

"Northwestern is a good basketball team," Penn State coach Jerry Dunn said on the Penn State Sports Network after his team's 69-68 overtime win. "This is a great win for our team. We never laid down and never quit."

Lion forward Jarrett Stephens was Mr. Clutch at the end of regulation. The junior hit a big free throw with two minutes and six seconds left in the second half to bring Penn State (11-9, 4-6 Big Ten) within two points of Northwestern (8-12, 1-9). Stephens followed up just 35 seconds later with a bucket to knot the score at 58.

The Lions had one more chance to pull out a last-second victory. Freshman guard Joe Crispin took the inbound pass with :12 showing on the clock, dribbled the ball upcourt and passed it to center Calvin Booth at the top of the key. Booth, who held the ball for six seconds, didn't dish the ball to an open Pete Lisicky cutting through the lane. Instead, Booth forced a shot that never made it to the net as time expired.

Once again the Wildcats looked to senior Evan Eschmeyer to carry the brunt of the load. On Jan. 22 against the Lions, Eschmeyer dropped in 24 points, grabbed eight rebounds and was 6 of 6 from the free throw line as Penn State thumped the Wildcats 83-45 at The Bryce Jordan Center.

This time Eschmeyer improved those statistics by shredding the Lion defense for a career-high 37 points including 17 of 22 at the charity stripe to go along with his 12 boards. Six of his 37 points came in overtime -- all from the foul line.

In overtime, Penn State took a 60-58 lead on a Booth bucket, only to see the Wildcats come right back and eventually take a 67-65 lead with 1:05 left in the extra frame. Two clutch free throws by freshman Gyasi Cline-Heard, who was only 32 percent from the line entering the game, tied the score at 67. Crispin then nailed a fade-away jumper to ice the game for the Lions.

"I can't praise (Crispin and Cline-Heard) enough," Dunn said.

Lisicky opened the scoring for Penn State with a basket and a foul to complete a 3-point play. He finished with a team-high 20 points. Lisicky wasn't spectacular from the field (4 of 13), but he was money from the foul line. He connected on all 11 free throw attempts. Lisicky has now hit 31 straight free throws and is just two shy of his own record of 33 straight.

Penn State led by as many as 10 in the first half and went into the locker room with a 31-25 lead. Northwestern answered with a 10-0 run that started at the end of the first and continued into the second.

Northwestern had every opportunity to deny Penn State the victory, but, like many times before, Kevin O'Neill's squad failed to execute. With his team up two, junior guard Julian Bonner overstayed his welcome on the sideline trying inbound the ball and was called for a five-second violation. This crucial turnover led to Stephens' final three points of the game to send it into overtime.

Bonner was called for another five-second violation in overtime. Crispin provided sticky defense and forced Bonner to hold on longer than the referees saw fit. Bonner was hit with a five-second call that all but sealed the victory for Penn State.

Crispin saw added action yesterday as he played in 42 of the possible 45 minutes in the game. He finished with 16 points, six assists and three steals. But where Crispin was most impressive was from 3-point land. He was 4 of 5 from behind the arc, including one from NBA range.