Penn State visits Francis and Rutgers
Penn State Nittany Lions (12-18, 3-16 Big Ten) at Rutgers Scarlet Knights (12-18, 5-14 Big Ten)
Piscataway, New Jersey; Sunday, 12 p.m. EDT
BOTTOM LINE: Rutgers takes on Penn State after Tariq Francis scored 25 points in Rutgers’ 91-87 loss to the Michigan State Spartans.
The Scarlet Knights are 9-7 on their home court. Rutgers ranks ninth in the Big Ten with 9.6 offensive rebounds per game led by Emmanuel Ogbole averaging 2.7.
The Nittany Lions have gone 3-16 against Big Ten opponents. Penn State is 7-14 against opponents with a winning record.
Rutgers is shooting 41.7% from the field this season, 8.5 percentage points lower than the 50.2% Penn State allows to opponents. Penn State has shot at a 46.9% rate from the field this season, 0.6 percentage points greater than the 46.3% shooting opponents of Rutgers have averaged.
The teams meet for the second time in conference play this season. Rutgers won 85-72 in the last matchup on Feb. 18. Francis led Rutgers with 22 points, and Josh Reed led Penn State with 22 points.
TOP PERFORMERS: Francis is averaging 16.9 points for the Scarlet Knights. Darren Buchanan Jr. is averaging 9.1 points over the last 10 games.
Ivan Juric is averaging 9.5 points and 5.2 rebounds for the Nittany Lions. Freddie Filione V is averaging 15.0 points over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Scarlet Knights: 3-7, averaging 73.0 points, 25.8 rebounds, 13.9 assists, 6.1 steals and 2.5 blocks per game while shooting 43.9% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 78.8 points per game.
Nittany Lions: 3-7, averaging 69.8 points, 22.5 rebounds, 11.2 assists, 7.2 steals and 2.0 blocks per game while shooting 47.2% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 83.4 points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.