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STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Talor Battle backpedaled and smiled after his layup attempt rolled off the rim and into the hands of a Northwestern defender.
Even the late miss couldn't get him down with his team up 20. The star point guard had 16 points, six rebounds and six assists and hot-shooting Penn State easily exploited the Wildcats in a 79-60 victory.
Jeff Brooks added 11 points and seven rebounds for the Nittany Lions (11-17, 3-13 Big Ten), who shot 57 percent for the game and 68 percent in the first half, to secure its fourth straight victory over Northwestern.
Michael Thompson had 21 points for the Wildcats (18-11, 7-10), whose already faint hopes for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament were all but extinguished after a second loss this season to the conference's last-place team.
"Talor played an unbelievable floor game today," said his coach Ed DeChellis, who secured the 200th victory of his 14-year career.
John Shurna finished with nine points on 2 of 11 shooting, nine below his season average. The Wildcats bore little resemblance to the team that earlier this season had broken into the Top 25 and had designs on the NCAA tournament.
They were porous again on defense, which coach Bill Carmody says has been a problem the past three weeks.
"Penn State just came out and they knew what they were doing," Carmody said. "It didn't matter the personnel, or what defense we were in. They just went about their business in the right way."
Brooks, who often looked lost against the Big Ten's top teams, played with energy around the bucket, and combined with center Andrew Jones (eight points, seven rebounds) to dominate Northwestern's big men.
"Today, we were slow getting out to the corners. We were at the mercy of the guy with the ball in the corner. A little head fake ... we were never close enough," Carmody said.
Only 3-point shooting went Northwestern's way during an otherwise terrible afternoon. It opened 7 of 11 from long range to stay within 27-24 with 7:45 in the first half.
But the 3s stopped falling, and Penn State found holes in Northwestern's defense.
"It was like fool's gold," Carmody said about the 3s. "We were close, but it didn't feel like it at all."
14 at the half and by 25 with 8 minutes left in the game.
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