UNIVERSITY PARK — Yanic Konan Niederhauser matched his career high with 27 points and Ace Baldwin triggered the offense with 10 assists as Penn State cruised to an 87-64 win over Buffalo on Sunday afternoon.
The Nittany Lions (7-1) rebounded after suffering their first loss, 75-67 to Clemson last week in the Sunshine Slam championship game.
Baldwin hit a 3 with a minute left, then fed Niederhauser for a dunk to put Penn State up by 12 before Ryan Sabol hit to late free throws to make it 38-28 at halftime.
Freddie Dilione Jr. and Niederhauser hit back-to-back 3-pointers three minutes into the second half to push the lead to 44-31 and after Nick Kern Jr. scored at the basket and Zach Hicks knocked down a 3 to make it 50-36 with under 14 minutes left the Nittany Lions maintained their double-digit lead the rest of the way.
Penn State shot 56.5% from the field as a team (35 of 62), including 9 of 21 from behind the arc. Niederhauser was 12 of 16 shooting from the field, including 1 of 2 from distance to lead the effort. Dilione was 4 of 9 from beyond the arc and finished with 16 points to go with four assists. Kern came off the bench to add 12 points.
Buffalo shot 22 of 53 (41.5%), including 7 of 27 from distance. Sabol hit 5 of 12 from long range and was 4-for-4 at the line to lead Buffalo (4-4) with 19 points. Brayden Jackson was 5 of 7 from the floor off the bench and added 11 points.
