Heading into Wednesday’s contest, Penn State and Maryland were positioned at completely opposite ends of the Big Ten standings.

Yet, you wouldn’t have guessed it from looking at the scoreline.

The Nittany Lions scored 14 of the game’s first 17 points and would never let up en route to a 78-61 victory over the Terrapins at the Bryce Jordan Center.

With the win, Penn State improves to 12-16 on the season and 5-12 in the Big Ten, while Maryland falls to 21-8 and 12-6 in the conference. The victory was also the fifth win in the last seven games for Penn State as it continues to climb up the Big Ten standings.

Here are three takeaways from Wednesday’s contest.

Complete effort from top to bottom

From the opening tip in this one, it was apparent that this was going to be a one-sided affair.

To use an old and tired cliche, Penn State just “wanted it more” from start to finish, while the Terrapins seemed like they just wanted to get back on the bus.

Penn State jumped out a 15-4 lead in the early going and was in total control throughout the first half en route to a 42-20 lead at the break.

At one point early in the second half, coach Mark Turgeon emptied the bench and took out all five Maryland starters.

It was a complete and total team effort for Penn State in all phases of the game, something that the Nittany Lions have done on multiple occasions during what has easily been their best stretch of the season.

As expected, Lamar Stevens was dominant throughout, finishing with 24 points on 9-of-17 shooting to lead the way for Penn State.

However, the numbers were not eye-popping for the rest of the team.

It was more so about how the hosts played with each other for the entirety of the contest.

Josh Reaves and Jamari Wheeler created havoc on defense and finished with a combined 10 assists on the offensive end, Myreon Jones chipped in 10 points off the bench, and Mike Watkins and John Harrar were strong in the interior all night long.

This win was less about individual accolades and more about the Nittany Lions dominating the proceedings as a team for 40 minutes.

Impressive showing from Dread

For the first few months of the 2018-19 season, Myles Dread showed great potential as one of Penn State’s cornerstone guards going forward.

However, for large chunks of the season, the freshman guard had not been able to string together strong performances with any sort of consistency.

The month of February has been his best of the campaign thus far and on Wednesday he produced another strong showing.

Coming off strong home performances against Michigan and Nebraska, Dread scored eight of Penn State’s first 10 points as part of establishing a commanding lead in the first half.

The freshman lead all scores at the halftime with 15 points and was also part of a strong defensive effort for the hosts in the opening half, helping slow down Anthony Cowan Jr. and limit Maryland to just 20 points in the first 20 minutes.

For the game, Dread finished with 17 points and knocked down three 3-pointers as part of a balanced Penn State attack.

Rocky outing for Fernando

All season long, Bruno Fernando has given interior defenses nightmares.

An intimidating presence in the paint, Fernando is currently averaging a double-double at just under 15 points and 11 rebounds per game to go along with his gaudy field goal percentage of nearly 66 percent from the field.

The sophomore has been a double-doubles machine throughout the campaign, and has already posted double-doubles in 19 games this season.

However, the Nittany Lions rose to the task and made the forward’s life miserable on Wednesday.

Fernando was harrassed for the entirety of the contest, only managing nine points on 3-of-6 shooting and finishing with five turnovers on the evening.

The Luanda, Angola native was neutralized from the opening minutes as he was forced into four turnovers in the first 10 minutes of the game.

Fernando would never get into a rhythm on offense, and neither would the rest of his team as the Terrapins went down without a whimper for just their second loss in their last six games.

Next Up

The Nittany Lions will be back in action on Saturday as they will travel to Madison, Wisconsin to take on the Badgers at 1:00 p.m.