Jamelle Cornley leads Penn St. past Hoosiers

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Jamelle Cornley used his pregame speech to convey his emotions about making the NCAA tournament.

He did an even better job showing his Penn State teammates how to get there.

With the Nittany Lions needing one or two more wins to likely lock up their first tourney bid since 2001, the senior swingman took matters into his own hands by scoring 14 points in the first 11 minutes, finishing with 22 points and leading the Nittany Lions past Indiana 66-51 in Thursday’s first-round game at the Big Ten tournament.

“That 13-game skid my sophomore year, it allowed us to be here. Going through the frustrations, the mental frustrations that year helped all of us. The coaching staff, too,” Cornley said. “Now we’ve put ourselves in position to be in the NCAA tournament.”

Forgive Cornley if he’s a little early for the selection committee.

Thursday’s victory gave sixth-seeded Penn State (22-10) the second most wins in school history, a chance to face third-seeded Purdue in today’s quarterfinals and may have put them in the NCAA tourney. Another win would likely lock it up.

So Cornley, who spent his first three years enduring the tribulations, was determined not to let anything stand in the way of his dream — not the selection committee, not a few late-season stumbles and certainly not an undermanned Indiana team.

Cornley answered his own challenge by making his first six shots, including two 3-pointers, and his first two free throws. Stanley Pringle helped out, scoring 13 of his 16 points in the first 20 minutes, too.

The struggling Hoosiers had no answers, losing their fourth straight to the Nittany Lions. Penn State completed its first three-game sweep of Indiana in school history.

And there was one reason.

“Jamelle really let his heart spill out, said this is his last go-round,” guard Talor Battle said. “He showed it, he played a heck of a game. He set the tone. He was great today. He set the tone for everybody else, and we jumped on his back.”

For the struggling Hoosiers (6-25), the combination was too much. Again.

Indiana, which had only eight scholarship players this season, was even shorter-handed than usual. Starting guard Devan Dumes missed his second straight game with a right knee injury.

Verdell Jones scored 23 points to lead Indiana, which lost its 10th straight, but he had no help. Nobody else scored more than five.