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GAME NOTES: The Northwestern Wildcats visit the Penn State Nittany Lions this afternoon in what should be a competitive Big Ten battle.

Northwestern halted a two-game skid with a 74-57 decision over Iowa on Thursday. That victory enabled the Wildcats to improve to 18-10 overall and 7-9 in conference. On a down note, six of the eight true road games that NU has played thus far have resulted in defeat, not exactly a reason for optimism heading into today's affair.

As for Penn State, it fell to Ohio State on Wednesday as expected in a 75-67 final. That loss halted a modest two-game win streak for the Nittany Lions, who are 10-17 overall and a woeful 2-13 in Big Ten action. On a positive note, Penn State did beat Northwestern, 81-70, two weeks ago to earn its first league win, and the Lions own a 23-12 series advantage over the Wildcats.

John Shurna has quietly had an outstanding year for Northwestern, as he is netting 18.5 ppg to go along with 6.1 rpg and 71 assists, proof of his tremendous versatility. Michael Thompson's 114 assists lead the club, and he chips in 13.3 ppg. As for Drew Crawford, he adds 10.7 ppg, and the fact that four players have started every game for Northwestern so far is both rare and impressive. The Wildcats are scoring 69.3 ppg while allowing 65.0 ppg, but they are being outscored by nearly two points per contest by league foes. In the recent romp over Iowa, Shurna poured in 29 points on 10-of-14 shooting from the floor, and Jeremy Nash added 15 points. Both Thompson and Luka Mirkovic tallied 12 points for the Wildcats, who shot 58.3 percent from the floor and finished with 21 assists against only eight turnovers.

It is hard to find a player who means more to his team than Talor Battle does to Penn State. The standout guard is not only tops in scoring (19.1 ppg), steals (32) and assists (108), but he is the club's leading rebounder as well (5.5 rpg). The fact that there isn't another double-digit scorer on the roster helps to explain PSU's struggles. The Nittany Lions are being outscored by 6.5 rpg in league play and have lost plenty of close contests. Against Ohio State last time out, the Lions were certainly competitive in a game that featured seven lead changes. A 13-4 deficit in points off turnovers proved costly. Battle tallied 22 points in defeat.

Northwestern will avenge the earlier loss to Penn State, as Shurna will out-duel Battle.