Penn State beats No. 17 Illinois on the road
Andrew Funk and Myles Dread combined for 11 3-pointers to help lead Penn State to a 74-59 win over No. 17 Illinois on Saturday in a Big Ten game at Champaign, Ill.
Funk and Jalen Pickett led all scorers with 20 points each, Seth Lundy had 16 and Dread 15 to give the Nittany Lions (11, 7-3) their first road Big Ten win against a top-20 team since beating No. 16 Michigan State in 2020.
“There’s not many people that are going to come in here and win,” Penn State coach Micah Shrewsberry said. “You prepare for a game like this, you see their talent, you see how hard they play. This crowd, how involved they are, the atmosphere, this is a tough place to play.”
Matthew Mayer led Illinois (0-2, 7-3) with 14 points, all in the first half.
“Put it in bold, damn print: leadership, lack of (it),” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “And no effort. That’s what happens
in this league when you have none of that.”
Penn State shot 50% from 3-point range, and hit 6-of-9 3s in the first half. Funk made another 3 to extend the lead to double digits on the opening possession of the second half.
But Illinois strung together a 8-0 run and held Penn State scoreless for about five minutes to pull closer at 52-47. Then Funk hit back-to-back 3s — including one off an inbound pass — and Dread knocked down another in a span of 64 seconds to push the
lead to 14 at 61-47.
By then, the nearly soldout crowd had devolved from intense enthusiasm to flustered discontent, then stunned silence.
“This is a win that we’re going to look back on this and (use) this blueprint as something we can look back on to see how we did it,” said Funk, who added one more 3 to make it 7456 with 3:51 left.
PENN 77, TEMPLE 57 >> At Philadelphia, Jordan Dingle’s 30 points led Pennsylvania (6-7) past Temple (6-5).
Max Martz scored 14 points for the Quakers. Lucas Monroe had 10 points.
Khalif Battle led the Owls with 14 points.
NO. 2 TEXAS 88, ARKANSASPINE BLUFF 43 >> At Austin, Texas, Christian Bishop scored 16 points and No. 2 Texas (7-1) held ArkansasPine Bluff (3-8) to 13 points in the second half while coasting to the non-conference win.
Chris Greene scored 14 for Arkansas-Pine Bluff. NO. 5 UCONN 114, LIU 61 >> At Storrs, Conn., freshman Donovan Clingan had a career-high 21 points and 11 rebounds to lead UConn (110) over Long Island University (1-8) in a non-conference game.
It was Clingan’s second double-double of the season. Also for the Huskies, sophomore Jordan Hawkins had a team-high 22 points and was 6-of-9 on 3-pointers; freshman Alex Karaban scored a career-high 19 points; Adama Sanogo had 16 points and Naheim Alleyne 11.
Jacob Johnson scored 19 points for the Sharks.
NO. 9 ARKANSAS 88, OKLAHOMA 78 >> At Tulsa , Okla.,Ricky Council IV scored 26 points and Nick Smith Jr. had 21 to lead Arkansas (9-1) over Oklahoma (7-3).
NO. 16 KENTUCKY 69, YALE 59 >> At Lexington, Ky., Oscar Tshiebwe scored 28 points and had 12 rebounds to lead Kentucky (7-2) over Yale (8-3) in a non-conference game.
The Wildcats pushed their winning streak to four games in a tougher-than-expected contest against the Bulldogs. Yale opened the second half with an 8-0 run to tie it at 33-33 before Tshiebwe scored 12 straight to help the Wildcats regain control.
Sahvir Wheeler and Antonio Reeves had 10 points each for Kentucky.
Jack Malloy led Yale with 14 points.