If Penn State is going to keep shooting anything like this, then they sky's the limit for the Nittany Lions this season.
Penn State's single-game record for 3-pointers was 15 entering the season, and the Lions broke that with 18 in their opening victory over Winthrop. In their second game of the season Thursday night, the Lions drilled 16 3s and cruised to a 90-65 win over Loyola, Md., at Bryce Jordan Center in University Park.
The Lions made 16-of-30 shots from deep (53 percent) and shot 58 percent overall from the field in the blowout.
Granted, this hasn't been the best competition so far for Penn State. But for many years, one of the Lions' biggest weaknesses has been 3-point shooting, and it appears they've got the pieces in place to reverse that long-standing trend this season.
Camren Wynter, a transfer from Drexel, led Penn State with 18 points and knocked down 3-of-4 from deep. Wynter now has topped 1,500 points, 500 rebounds and 500 assists in his career.
Seems pretty good @iamcamrenwynter #WeAre pic.twitter.com/VU4Qw7Jr4w
— Penn State Men’s Basketball (@PennStateMBB) November 11, 2022
"I guess it feels cool, just knowing that there’s only three of us and two of us are in the same locker room (also Jalen Pickett)," Wynter said via the Penn State release. "It kind of just goes to show the versatility that we both have as point guards and just being able to do other things."
Myles Dread had 12 points off the bench and was 4-of-7 from 3-point land. Kebba Njie, a 6-foot-10 power forward, also had 12 points, and Seth Lundy had 10.
"Coming off the bench, it doesn’t matter if I start or come off the bench, I’m just always ready to go," Njie said.
"I have added a lot of strength over the summer and the preseason, ever since I got here at Penn State," Njie added. "The strength has helped me to be more physically dominant on the court. But now, I have to control that strength so I don’t get those easy fouls in the beginning."
The Lions will take a step up in competition their next game when they host Butler on Monday night in the Gavitt Tipoff Games.
THE ESSENTIALS
SHREWSBERRY COMMENTS
Here are some of coach Micah Shrewsberry's postgame comments, from the Penn State release:
Opening Statement:
"I’m just proud of our guys for the second game in a row. How we played, the pace we played at, the maturity that we started the game with. That was the biggest thing that I talked to those guys about, is we want to be better every game we play. We want to get better. We don’t want to take any steps back, and I didn’t feel like we did that. We weren’t sharp the entire time. There were stretches where we weren’t great. But, for the most part, these guys are playing really hard at both ends of the floor, and we’re getting contributions from a lot of different guys. 21 assists after having a big 24 the other night, when we share the ball like that, it’s contagious. We got a bunch of guys that can make plays off the dribble, that can shoot open threes. So, it opens up a lot of stuff for us."
On Camren Wynter's leadership and making adjustments:
"It took me until maybe early December to sit down and talk to Pickett last year about playing a different way, playing a different style. Cam didn’t play great in either one of our scrimmages. So, I was like, ‘Hey, don’t wait until December. Let’s talk to him in early November.’ I think he’s been really aggressive. You saw that tonight. What you saw tonight is who he is. He’s a good scorer. Chelsea told me walking in that he hit that mark of 1500 points, 500 rebounds and 500 assists in his career. That’s really impressive. There’s not very many people that have done it in the country, and we have another one on our team. That’s the kind of caliber of player he is."
Does he worry about becoming too dependent on 3-pointers:
"Nope, three is more than two. We got dudes that can really shoot it. A bunch of them, not just one. If people want to leave us open, we’re going to shoot as many as possible. Now, you saw it in the second half, they’re worried about it. We got to eight or nine or 10 pretty quickly in the game. So now they’re worries about it, which opened up driving lanes, which opened up guys attacking again. We made 16 and I can remember two or three possessions that we missed that was just beautiful ball movement with dudes slinging the ball over the court and it gets to an open guy. He just misses it. I’m okay with that. That means we’re connected. That means we’re locked in offensively. That means we’re playing the right way, we’re sharing it. I’m okay with it."