Home-loving Northwestern hosts hot Penn State

Northwestern will look to stay unbeaten against Big Ten Conference opponents at home when it hosts Penn State on Sunday afternoon in Evanston, Ill.

The Wildcats (16-7, 7-5) have won all six of their conference games at home this season. Their latest success came in the form of an 80-68 win against Nebraska.

Now, Northwestern will welcome a hot opponent in the Nittany Lions (12-11, 6-6). Penn State has won three in a row, including road games at Rutgers and Indiana and a home game against Iowa.

Ace Baldwin Jr. has been a big reason for Penn State's recent success. He scored 22 points to lift the Nittany Lions to an 89-79 win versus Iowa on Thursday night.

Baldwin tallied 13 of Penn State's final 18 points in the win.

"He's not afraid," Nittany Lions coach Mike Rhoades said. "The dude is not afraid. He's not afraid to be the guy to say, ‘All right, I'm going to make a play, and if it doesn't happen, it's on me.'

"He's hard on himself but he also works on his game and has that elite competitiveness."

Northwestern is led by Boo Buie, who is averaging a team-high 19 points and 5.4 assists. Brooks Barnhizer ranks second in scoring with 14.5 points to go along with a team-high 6.7 rebounds.

The Wildcats could be without guard Ty Berry, who injured his knee in the win over Nebraska. Berry is averaging 11.6 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.4 assists.

"He had a little bit of a twist of his knee," Northwestern coach Chris Collins said. "The docs are all on it. We have to see how he responds and see where things are at. You pray for the best.

"Ty is playing great basketball. He's such a leader for us. He's playing the best basketball of his career, and we hope and pray that it's nothing that's going to be real long term. I know he's going to fight like crazy to get back on the floor as soon as he can."

—Field Level Media