Three times before, Talor Battle had tried to hit 30 points, but always stopped short at 29.
Monday night, the junior point guard finally broke that barrier, scoring a career-high 32 points in leading the Nittany Lions (5-2) to a 69-66 win over Virginia (4-3).
"I was glad for him because he's really worked on his shooting," Penn State coach Ed DeChellis told the Penn State Radio Network. "He hadn't been making many threes and we needed somebody to bang a couple and he was able to do that for us."
Battle finally found his stroke from deep, hitting 5-of-9 from beyond the arc and 9-of-15 overall. Freshman guard Tim Frazier was the only other Lion to score in double figures with 11 while junior forward Jeff Brooks led the team with nine rebounds.
The Lions trailed after the first half but came out strong on both ends to start the second, igniting a 9-2 run that handed the team its first lead with 16:34 left in the half. DeChellis pointed to the defense as the spark that got his team back into the contest.
"I thought we came out and played well in the second half other than the last three-and-a-half minutes," DeChellis said. "I think it all came down to defense. Our defense really fueled our offense, we got some steals, we got hands on some balls and we were having some fun defensively we were flying around and we created some baskets."
Battle was stuck at 29 points when the Cavaliers began intentionally fouling to slow the clock, giving the guard several chances to hit a new career high. Battle missed three attempts before finally hitting the needed free throw.
The junior scored 28 second-half points, and after a three that he came off a screen to shoot, Battle had a big smile on his face as he returned to the defensive end. Finally having a consistent shooting performance on the road, DeChellis was pleased by the second-half effort.
"That's the frustrating thing of the team right now: We were playing in spurts. Offensively the first half it was like watching paint dry," DeChellis said. "In the second half I thought we were pretty fun to watch offensively. We did some things. It's the frustrating thing, we're playing in spurts but it's early."
A game after scoring a career-best 26 points, forward DJ Jackson was given the task of guarding Cavaliers guard Sylven Landesberg. While the Virginia guard scored 18 points, DeChellis said Jackson made Landesberg work for his shots and he felt the forward was the best choice to stick the smooth-shooting guard.
The win gave the Lions a three-game winning streak in the Big Ten/ACC challenge and became the first Big Ten team to ever win three in a row.
"This is a game that was very important to us, the kids were focused, we had a good time playing the game," DeChellis said. "Down here in the end, we could have folded because we hadn't been in this situation, Chris Babb and Tim Frazier and some of the guys haven't been in this situation. It was good we were able to get a win."
