Indianapolis, Ind., March 9, 2006 - The Penn State men's basketball team (15-13) took control early and rolled to a dominating 60-42 victory over Northwestern (14-15) Thursday in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis' Conseco Fieldhouse. The victory, Penn State's first in the tournament in five years and first when its been held in Indianapolis, propels the Nittany Lions into a second round match-up with No. 1 seed Ohio State (23-4) Friday at noon. That game can be seen live on ESPN. The last time the Buckeyes were a No. 1 seed in the tournament (2000) Penn State defeated them in the second round (71-66). Sophomore Geary Claxton, recently named to the USBWA All-District 1 team and third-team All-Big Ten, led the Nittany Lions with his sixth double-double of the season posting 17 points and 10 rebounds while shooting seven of 10 from the field. Senior Travis Parker added 10 and sophomore Mike Walker came of the bench to score 10 in 28 minutes of action, as the Nittany Lions defeated an opponent three times in the same season for the first time since pulling the trick against George Washington in the 1989-90 season. "I'm not going to say its surprising," Claxton said of the 18-point victory, Penn State's largest ever in the tournament. "We're just trying to go out there and play hard and do everything Coach tells us to do. We did that and things happened like they did." Penn State's 2-3 zone defense and full-court 1-2-2 press stifled the Northwestern offense as the Wildcats shot just 32 percent from the field and seven-of-31 (23 percent) from three-point range. Northwestern's 42 points were its lowest output on the season and the second lowest ever allowed in a Big Ten Tournament game. The Nittany Lions held Big Ten scoring champion Vedran Vukusic to 10 points while fellow senior Mohamed Hachad paced the Wildcats with 16. The Nittany Lions again won the rebounding battle posting a 39-26 advantage and shot 56 percent in the second half and 47 percent for the game. "I thought defensively our guys played a very good game tonight," Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said. "We've worked hard the last three days in trying to find No. 11 (Vedran Vukusic), No. 20 (Craig Moore) and No. 24 (Evan Seacat). We also really worked hard at trying to keep (Mohamed) Hachad off the glass. Defensively, I thought we were very, very good this afternoon." Penn State jumped out to an early 12-3 lead as the Nittany Lions connected on their first three three-point attempts (treys from Claxton, Parker and David Jackson). Northwestern managed just five points through the first 10 minutes of action as Penn State took an 18-5 lead on a Mike Walker three-pointer at the 10:28 mark. Northwestern cut the lead to six at 18-12 on a three from Craig Moore, but Ben Luber answered with a three for Penn State and the Nittany Lions went on an 11-2 run grab a 15-point lead, their biggest of the half, with a 29-14 advantage. Northwestern got the lead back under 10 with baskets from Vukusic and Hachad and a three from Evan Seacat, who had 18 in the team's last meeting in State College. Claxton made a nice tip-in of an errant Walker three-point attempt in the closing seconds, part of his 11 first half points, for a 31-21 Penn State lead at the half. A Vukusic three, his only one of the game, got the lead back under 10 just over a minute into the second half at 32-24, but that would be as close as the Wildcats would get. A jumper from Parker started a 12-2 Penn State run and Northwestern scored just two points over the next nine minutes as the Nittany Lions pushed their lead to 20 at 46-26. Five Nittany Lions scored during the run. Claxton had five points over the stretch including a conventional three-point play on a up and under scoop shot that drew a foul from Vukusic. Penn State pushed its lead to as many as 26 on two occasions, first on a jumper from Parker and then on Walker's second three of the night at the 4:11 mark. It was sweet sailing from there as Penn State substituted liberally down the stretch and cruised into a Friday game at the Big Ten Tournament for the first time since the 2001 season. "We have a lot of firsts this year," DeChellis said. "We hadn't won a road game in several years and we won three. We hadn't had a winning record in a few years and now we have a winning record. I think we've built a foundation and now have to put the sides up. We just have to keep moving. I feel great about our kids and where we're going."
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