By: Lyndsey Armacost // NNN Sports
There were high hopes for freshman Vic Law coming into his freshman campaign and, after his performance in Saturday’s win against Penn State, now we know why.
Vic Law came off the bench for the second straight game and posted his first double-double of the season. With 17 points, 11 rebounds, and 2 steals, he was the game’s difference maker. “I just think I’m starting to get used to college basketball now so everything is getting a little easier. My mindset has changed, I think, greatly since the beginning of the season to now. I’m starting to mature a little bit more. I’m taking things a lot more seriously,” said Law. Vic Law played 31 minutes in the contest, the most he has played since November 22nd when they played Elon.
The Nittany Lions got off to a hot start, making 4 of their first 5 three pointers, but other than that the Wildcat’s zone defense was able to shut them down in the first half. “I give our guys a lot of credit, I even give myself a lot of credit because even after they hit their first four threes, it was testing my patience with sticking with the zone. We stayed the course with it and our defense was fantastic,” said Coach Collins.
“If we’re going to rely on our 3-point shooting, it’s going to be a long day for us,” said Coach Chambers. The Nittany Lions had 27 3-point attempts and, of the 8 that they made, 5 came in the first 12 minutes of the game. The Cats’ zone defense forced Penn State to take those low percentage shots because the zone allowed Olah to stay in the paint.
Penn State’s D.J. Newbill has averaged 21.1 points per game this season but the Cats were able to hold him to just 3 off of 1 for 6 shooting, 1 for 5 from 3-point range. Coach Collins said, “Our guys did a really good job of keeping awareness where Newbill was at all times. Forget that he only hit one basket, we were able to not even let him get looks and that’s the best way. Thorpe and Garner hit a few early but we were fine with those guys trying to be the playmakers if we could keep Newbill at bay.”
This was the Wildcats’ third straight win and Collins attributed that to a new found focus and maturity in all of the players, especially Law. He also mentioned that, being one game under .500, he doesn’t think that the postseason is out of the question if they can finish the season strong.