Ace Baldwin Jr. powers Penn State past Iowa

Field Level Media|published: Thu 8th February, 21:16 2024

Feb 8, 2024; University Park, Pennsylvania, USA; Penn State Nittany Lions guard Ace Baldwin Jr (1) looses his footing while dribbling the ball around Iowa Hawkeyes forward Ben Krikke (23) during the first half at Bryce Jordan Center. credits: Matthew O'Haren-USA TODAY Sports

Ace Baldwin Jr. was electric down the stretch as part of a 22-point outing to lead Penn State to an 89-79 victory over Iowa in Big Ten play on Thursday night in University Park, Pa.

Qudus Wahab and Zach Hicks scored 14 points apiece as the Nittany Lions (12-11, 6-6 Big Ten) won their third straight game. D'Marco Dunn added 12 points while Baldwin also had six assists and four steals for Penn State.

Ben Krikke scored 22 points for Iowa (13-10, 5-7), which lost for the fourth time in the last six games. Tony Perkins added 11 points and eight assists for the Hawkeyes.

Baldwin had 18 second-half points. He scored 11 of them during the decisive 13-2 run as Penn State took the lead for good.

Baldwin drilled a tiebreaking trey with 3:48 left to give Penn State a 74-71 lead. He added two throws and converted a three-point play to make it 81-73 before knocking down another trey with 51.9 seconds left to give the Nittany Lions an 11-point lead.

Baldwin later made two free throws with 34.8 seconds left to help Penn State close it out.

The Nittany Lions connected on 52 percent of their shots and were a solid 12-of-23 from behind the arc.

Iowa shot 55.9 percent from the field, but was just 4-of-15 from 3-point range.

Iowa trailed by eight at the half but started the third quarter with a 15-6 run. Owen Freeman completed it with a three-point play to give the Hawkeyes a 49-48 edge with 13:08 left.

Dunn answered with five straight points to put Penn State ahead by four before Iowa went on a 12-1 run. Patrick McCaffery converted a three-point play to conclude it and give the Hawkeyes a 61-54 lead with 9:54 left.

A short time later, the Nittany Lions rattled off 11 consecutive points. Hicks made two treys during the burst, the latter giving Penn State a 67-63 lead with 5:55 remaining.

Iowa recovered to tie it at 71 on a 3-pointer by Payton Sandfort with 4:07 left.

Jameel Brown scored nine first-half points as Penn State led 42-34 at the break. Krikke had nine in the half for Iowa.

—Field Level Media