LINCOLN, Neb. — Isaiah Roby scored a career-high 22 points and made a couple big defensive plays late, and Nebraska beat Penn State, 70-64, on Thursday night for its school-record 20th straight home win.
The Cornhuskers (12-4, 2-3 Big Ten) bounced back from two straight road losses that knocked them out of the Top 25. The Nittany Lions (7-9, 0-5) lost their third straight.
Josh Reaves finished a season-high 20 points, Mike Watson had 14 rebounds, and the Lions held a 46-32 rebounding advantage, including 21-6 on the offensive end.
Penn State coach Patrick Chambers was back on the bench. He was suspended for Sunday’s game against Wisconsin after shoving one of his players during a timeout in a loss at Michigan last week.
Nebraska’s home win streak is the longest among power-five conference teams and fourth-longest overall. The Huskers broke the school record set by the 1965-66 and ’66-67 teams.
Roby scored six of Nebraska’s eight points after Penn State tied it 48-48. He drove to the basket to give the Huskers the lead, then he ran through a wide-open lane, caught a pass in stride from Isaac Copeland and put down a big dunk. He put back Glynn Watson Jr.’s missed 3-pointer to make it 56-51.
Roby was 8 for 9 from the field, made two 3-pointers, and was 4 for 5 on free throws to go with 11 rebounds in his best overall game of the season.
On the defensive end, he made a steal and had one of his season-high four blocked shots in the last minute to help hold off Penn State, which missed 9 of its final 11 shots.
Reaves hit a 3-pointer to pull the Nittany Lions to 62-61, and Watson made a huge 3. Watson saved the ball from going out of bounds, gathered himself and shot a 3-pointer that bounced three times off the rim to make it a four-point game with 2 minutes, 15 seconds left.
Watson had 19 points and three of the Huskers’ nine 3-pointers.
