MADISON, Wis. — The Penn State men’s basketball team finished its 2024-25 Big Ten season in style on Saturday, March 9, with an 86-75 victory at No. 12 Wisconsin.
It was Penn State’s first victory ever at Wisconsin’s Kohl Center and its first win in Madison since 1995.
It was also the highest ranked road win by the Nittany Lions since their victory over No. 9 Michigan State in 2009.
Led by a career-high 25 points by D’Marco Dunn, Penn State seriously heated up in the second half and turned an early 16-3 deficit into an 11-point victory over the 23-8 Badgers.
The Lions edged back from that 13-point deficit and scored the final 8 points in the first half to pull to within five points at 40-35.
The second half was all Penn State as the Lions poured in 51 points on 60% shooting from the field that included 55% (6-for-11) from beyond the arc.
The Lions scored 18 fast break points and got 15 more from the bench as they pulled away down the stretch for their 16th victory of the season.
Penn State tied the game three minutes into the second half and the teams went back-and-forth until the Lions went up 69-62 after a dunk by Yannic Konan Niederhauser and a jumper by Dunn.
Wisconsin kept playing and got to 72-70 with 3:43 to play, but scores by Freddie Dillione V and Dunn spotted the Lions an 8-point lead they would not lose.
Then a layup by Dillione, another dunk by Niederhauser and two free throws by Zach Hicks completed the scoring in what was one of the team’s best outings of the season.
Beside Dunn’s 25, Niederhauser scored 15 (with 11 rebounds), Hicks had 14 and Kern added 12.
Ace Baldwin threw in nine assists, three steals, four rebounds and 8 points.
The game marked the end of the regular season for Penn State, with a record of 16-15 overall and 6-14 in the Big Ten Conference.
During the 24-25 regular season, Penn State averaged 78.9 points per game, which is a program record that dates back to the 1954-55 team that averaged 78.7 ppg.
Baldwin led the team with 419 points for an average of 14 per game, while Niederhauser was second with 12.9 ppg. Hicks (11.6), Kern (11.5) and Puff Johnson (10.2) followed.
Baldwin also had 213 assists, 71 steals and 85 rebounds.
