Northwestern’s 85-79 win against Penn State on Saturday was tagged with the “2OT” label thanks to a couple of Chicago Catholic Leaguers.
Penn State senior Brandon Watkins — a former St. Josephs’ standout — hit a last-second shot to knot the game at the end of regulation, and again at the end of the first overtime.
“We had no answers for Watkins,” NU coach Bill Carmody said. “He’s a Chicago guy, we should’ve recruited that guy, but I wasn’t here. That guy just carried them the whole time.”
But Watkins’ career-high 31-point homecoming was spoiled by Northwestern’s own Chi-town product: Jitim Young.
“I’d rather have the win,” Watkins said. “But sometimes you have to take the bitter with the sweet. Young is big time, he’s a go-to guy.”
Young led the Wildcats with 26 points in his career-high 48 minutes.
Young — who also played in the Catholic League on Gordon Tech — scored nine consecutive points for NU during a four-minute span to start the second half.
“Coach really challenged us in the locker room,” Young said. “I felt like we needed some momentum coming out. I just said, ‘Well okay, let me see what I can do.’ I really took it upon myself to get the team going and to lead the guys.”
Young and Watkins faced each other in high school and still play together regularly during the offseason.
“(Watkins) really got up when T.J. (Parker) started talking to him a little bit,” Young said. “It got him fired up. Coach talks about not pissing guys off, and I think that triggered something.”
While Young’s scoring total reached its peak by the end of regulation, Watkins started his own nine-point streak by nailing an NBA-range trey with three seconds left in the second half to even the score at 65.
“The play was actually called up for Sharif (Chambliss),” Watkins said. “But it broke down and I had the ball up top. The shot was clutch, the rest is history.”
Watkins went on to score all six of the Nittany Lions’ points in the first overtime, including another game-tying jumper from 12 feet.
Watkins’ shot came after Young missed two free throws that could have iced the game.
Young’s poor showing from the charity stripe (4 of 10) was a shortcoming in an otherwise solid all-around game that matched Watkins complete effort.
Young connected on 10 of 15 of his field goal attempts while Watkins shot 13-for-26. They both had seven rebounds, including one offensive board. Each had four turnovers and four assists and both played nearly all 50 minutes.
“Watkins had a phenomenal game,” Penn State coach Jerry Dunn said. “When guys come home, you don’t know if they’re going to struggle because they’re trying to do too much, but he did a good job of letting the game come to him.”
But Watkins said he would rather direct praise toward “the guy that walks a way with the W.”
“Young is what makes that team go,” he said. “Without him getting down in for rebounds and flying around, they just don’t have ‘it’ on the court.”
