PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Ace Baldwin Jr. scored 15 points, D’Marco Dunn added 14 and Penn State defeated Rutgers 61-46 on Wednesday night.
Baldwin added seven assists and five steals for the Nittany Lions (10-11, 4-6 Big Ten). Dunn had seven rebounds and three steals. Qudus Wahab had nine points and 11 rebounds. Penn State shot 38.5% for the game.
Gavin Griffiths had 11 points and Jamichael Davis 10 for Rutgers (10-10, 2-7). The Scarlet Knights shot 34%, made 1 of 17 3-pointers and had 20 turnovers.
Penn State led 44-35 near the 9-minute mark of the second half before Rutgers closed the gap with a layup by Davis and a jumper by Derek Simpson. With 8 minutes left, Penn State went on an 15-5 run in which Puff Johnson scored eight points, including the last six, for a 59-44 lead with 2 minutes to go.
Rutgers led for the first 13 minutes of play, twice by seven points. A 7-0 run by the Nittany Lions led to a 16-15 lead with 6 1/2 minutes left in the first half. The Nittany Lions went ahead 26-18 with 2 minutes left, but Rutgers scored the last six points on a layup by Griffiths and four free throws by Simpson. Penn State led 26-24 at the break.
The home loss was just the third this season in 12 games for Rutgers and Penn State picked up its first true road win in Mike Rhoades’ first season as coach.
Penn State played without leading scorer Kanye Clary (18.4 ppg) who has been listed as day-to-day after suffering an undisclosed injury late in the second half of last Saturday’s loss to Minnesota.
Rutgers plays at Michigan and Penn State goes to Indiana, both on Saturday.
