Claxton equals career-high with 13 rebounds,
nets double-double with 13 points
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA, NOV. 19, 2005 — For 30 minutes of action Saturday the Penn State basketball team struggled to get anything to go in the basket and found itself trailing Cornell 44-39 with 10:21 left in the game and its best player, sophomore Geary Claxton, going to the bench with his fourth foul. The Nittany Lions responded by hitting 9-of-16 down the stretch, including a pair of big threes from sophomore Mike Walker off the bench, and scored 22 points in the final 10 minutes to grab a 66-54 victory over the Big Red in Penn State’s season opener in the Bryce Jordan Center.
Junior guard Ben Luber paced Penn State on the night as he equaled a career-high with 17 points and added six assists and three steals in 37 minutes of action. The Nittany Lions improved to 80-30 all-time in season openers and evened the all-time series with Cornell 5-5.
The Nittany Lions dominated on the boards posting a 49-33 advantage over the Big Red, who they had not played since 1972. Claxton led the way on the boards equaling a career-high with 13 rebounds, logging 10 by halftime, and posted his third career double-double with 13 points. Freshman Jamelle Cornley nearly joined Claxton in posting a double-double as the two-time Ohio State Player of the Year put up 12 points and nine rebounds off the bench. Cornley logged 28 minutes of action in his first collegiate game. Cornley’s 12 points were part of 24 for Penn State off the bench.
“Offensively I really think we rebounded the ball well,” Penn State Head Coach Ed DeChellis said. “Obviously, Geary did a great job rebounding the ball. I thought our bench play was the most important thing of the day. When you got Cornley coming in off the bench and getting nine rebounds and 12 points, and you know Milos (Bogetic) didn’t score a lot but he got four offensive rebounds and eight all together and played pretty good defense. So, that was important.
“Mike Walker coming off the bench gave us a lift and that’s something we haven’t had in the past couple of years. The rebounding was obviously very critical for us, but we need to convert.”
Both teams struggled to make shots in the first half as Cornell started 0-of-8 from the field and Penn State hit just three of its first 15 field goal attempts. Offensive rebounding kept the Nittany Lions close as Penn State posted 22 offensive boards and 19 second chance points on the game and trailed Cornell 29-27 at the half.
Cornell increased its lead to eight mid-way through the second half before Penn State began to heat up. Walker hit all three of his three-pointers on the game in the second half on his way to 11 points. The first came at the 11:36 mark and cut a 39-31 Cornell lead to 39-34. The Big Red pushed the lead back to eight again before Penn State went on an 18-4 run to take a 52-46 lead at the 7:02 mark. Walker got two more threes to go during the run, including one from the corner on which he was fouled that swung the momentum squarely into Penn State’s court.
“We got a run going and that picked up our confidence,” Walker said. “We have a lot of young players, even myself and my class and even the freshmen class. We needed the run to bring the confidence up. We got a bunch of good stops and went from there.”
Cornell cut the lead to eight at the 5:00 mark, but Luber responded with a three of his own and Penn State held a double-digit lead the rest of the way.
Penn State held Cornell to 35 percent shooting for the game and just 17 percent from the three-point line. Senior Lenny Collins and freshman Adam Gore both scored 14 points for the Big Red.
Penn State returns to the Bryce Jordan Center next Wednesday, Nov. 23 as they take on Nicholls State at 7:30 p.m.