The Big Ten only had one game on Friday night. It featured Penn State at home against an underwhelming Central Connecticut team. But could the Nittany Lions avoid a letdown effort?

Let’s take a look at what happened.

Game of the Night:

-No. 23 Penn State Nittany Lions 87, Central Connecticut Blue Devils 58

Let’s be honest. There wasn’t a lot of intrigue about this matchup heading in. Penn State was sitting at 9-2 overall and ranked in the top 25 nationally. Meanwhile, Central Connecticut was 0-11 and ranked 350th nationally on KenPom. The only real intrigue was whether Penn State could cover the massive spread.

The result ultimately did little to change those perceptions. Penn State got out to a big lead early and never looked back. All told, Penn State grabbed a dominant 87-58 win at home and improved to 10-2 overall on the season. It was also the team’s third straight win and fifth win in six games.

Penn State will now get more than a week off before closing out non-conference play at home next Sunday against Cornell. This is another game where the spread at tip-off should be well over 20 points. As such, it seems likely the Nittany Lions will head into the heart of Big Ten play sitting at 11-2 overall. That would be the program’s best straight through 13 games since the 2014-’15 season.