Almost lost amid the hoopla of Penn State's season-opening victory Friday night against Penn was the return of Adam Highberger.
Naturally, much of the energetic crowd of 7,507 at the Bryce Jordan Center was riveted by Talor Battle's dominance and a joyous pre-game ceremony honoring last year's NIT championship.
But the comeback of Highberger -- a junior guard who was sidelined the past two seasons with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries to both knees -- may be important to the Nittany Lions' hopes this season. Though he played only eight minutes in the 70-55 win over Penn, the Blairstown native provided both an offensive and defensive spark.
"Highberger and Sasa [Borovnjak] and those guys did a great job off the bench tonight," said Battle, after scoring a game-high 27 points and pulling down 10 rebounds while playing 39 of the game's 40 minutes. "And that's what a team is all about."
Entering the game midway through the first half, Highberger made an immediate impact. To that point, Penn's 6-foot-6 junior Tyler Bernardini was dominating the game, single-handedly outscoring Penn State 10-8 in the opening six minutes.
Highberger's presence against Bernadini -- last year's leading scorer for the Quakers -- changed the game's complexion. Highberger, a walk-on, came off the bench and applied high-energy defense on Bernadini and suddenly, Penn's go-to guy became frustrated and got into foul trouble. He scored only two more points the rest of the game.
"Adam did a great job for us defensively," coach Ed DeChellis said.
Penn coach Glen Miller noted the strong defensive effort, but felt Bernadini's unraveling was the undoing of his team.
"Tyler took himself out of the game with some careless fouls," Miller said. "We just have to develop some more discipline in all areas of the game."
Meanwhile, Highberger -- the aspiring dentist with a better than 3.7 cumulative GPA -- gave the Nittany Lions discipline and some much-needed sharp-shooting. He connected on two three-pointers in the final four minutes of the first half --his first collegiate points -- and gave the struggling Penn State offense a lift.
