Penn State Nittany Lions End Big 10 Frustration With First Conference Win

Tim Frazier had 11 points, nine rebounds and six assists on Thursday night for Penn State as the  Nittany Lions defeated Nebraska 58-54 in State College. D.J. Newbill was also a major contributor, tallying a game-high 16 points for the victors. Terran Petteway led the Cornhuskers with 15.

While many may have viewed this game as a battle for who’s going to wind up in the basement of the Big 10, this game was largely significant for major reasons.

For Penn State, they finally broke through and got a huge win — their first of the Big 10 season. And any win in the Big 10 this season is a good one. The Nittany Lions, who currently sit at 10-10 overall and 1-6 in the B1G, could very easily be 4-3 in conference play. They’ve dropped three games to Minnesota, Indiana and Purdue by a grand total of seven points. Yes seven. Pretty amazing thing to consider and obviously very frustrating for head coach Pat Chambers.

On the Nebraska side, the very energetic and positive second-year ‘Huskers coach Tim Miles must be deflated. On Monday night, Nebraska beat Ohio State in what many consider to be Miles’ greatest win in Lincoln thus far. But just three days later, the Big 10 has already humbled this young team and brought them back down to earth. This was a huge game for Nebraska, make no mistake about it. It offered them the chance to earn back-to-back conference wins in the toughest league in America and provided them with an opportunity to really build upon the program’s positive momentum. But it proved to be an opportunity that was missed.

Tonight belongs to the Nittany Lions and one of the more under-appreciated players in the country, Tim Frazier.

Penn State has to love seeing that kid back and playing well after missing nearly all of last season. They also have to love the fact that they finally grabbed that crucial first Big 10 ‘W’.