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Late-game drought sends Nittany Lions to 62-58 loss at Michigan

Coming off a dominating win at No. 15 Virginia Tech on Tuesday night in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, Penn State returned to action Sunday afternoon by opening its meat grinder of a Big Ten schedule.

Traveling to Michigan, the 3-1 Nittany Lions faced an unbeaten Wolverines’ outfit fresh off a blowout win against Toledo to improve to 5-0 on the year. Opening with a sloppy, uninspired performance in the first half at the Crisler Center, the Nittany Lions were able to battle through it to find themselves in a possession game in the final minutes, only to come up short in the clutch.

Ultimately falling on the losing end of a 62-58 decision, the Nittany Lions had both positive and negatives to take away from the performance:

Penn State Nittany Lions Basketball
Sam Sessoms couldn't even the score at 60-60 when his last-minute layup attempt missed. (AP Images)
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The Good

Trailing by 15 points late in the first half in the wake of a 12-2 barrage by Michigan, a disjointed Penn State team found its identity. Gritty, resilient, and hard-nosed, the Nittany Lions battled to a 36-27 halftime deficit with a Myreon Jones layup and back-to-back buckets from true freshman center Abdou Tsimbila before heading into the locker room.

More importantly, the effort would carry over. Invigorated rather than dwelling on Michigan’s dominance in the paint offensively and the Wolverines’ stifling defensive effort, the Nittany Lions returned to the hardwood with the same mindset to open the second half. Beginning with an Izaiah Brockington pull up at the elbow, the Nittany Lions rattled off a 12-2 run of their own to take their first lead of the game with 16:36 left to play.

From there, the hosts and visitors would scrap back and forth the rest of the way, Michigan immediately retaking its lead then jostling as the Nittany Lions took it again at the halfway mark.

“I didn't think we played well in the first half. I didn't think we play well defensively in the first half. I didn't think we played well offensively. I mean, we turned the ball over our first three possessions in the first half. So it was twofold, giving up middle penetration. I just didn't think we played to our abilities, certainly in the first half,” Penn State interim head coach Jim Ferry said. “I think we got better in the second half. But with that said, we got down and on the road, we're one stop away or one layup away from winning this game. So it's something that... in the Big Ten, you got to learn from your mistakes, you got to work on getting better, and then you got to be able to move on quickly.”

Clamping down defensively, the Nittany Lions’ offense ran dry, though. Bridging the end of the first half and start of the second by knocking down 8 of 11 shots from the floor, Penn State’s lead at 46-45 with 12:14 to play would mark the end of its shooting successes.


The Bad

And that end was especially brutal, in many ways mirroring the team’s cold-shooting start to the game. Beginning with a Seth Lundy missed 3-point attempt with 11:41 to play, the Nittany Lions missed 11 of their next 12 until Jones finally hit a 3-pointer out of the under-four media timeout. Followed quickly by a Sam Sessoms bucket and-one at the 2:53 mark, the Nittany Lions’ reversed a 7-0 Michigan run to retake a 58-56 lead, closing in on a second win in Ann Arbor in as many seasons.

It was not to be.

Unable to convert on a freed-up 3-point look for senior stretch-five Trent Buttrick, the Nittany Lions quickly allowed freshman big man Hunter Dickinson to get loose for an easy bucket. Tied at 58-58 with 2:08 to play, Sessoms followed his missed runner with a rebound, but couldn’t completely take control of possession and let it skitter out of bounds. Working quickly the other direction, the Wolverines went right back to Dickinson, who converted and gave the hosts a lead they wouldn’t relinquish despite two good looks for the Nittany Lions with less than a minute to play.

First creating an opening for lefty Izaiah Washington to attack the rim with his strong hand, the miss careened off the rim and back to Michigan for a quick foul. Sending winger Terrance Williams to the free-throw line, the freshman missed both of his double-bonus attempts to return possession to Penn State for another look. This time, with Sessoms staggering his attack to the basket, the transfer guard was able to get to the rim but turned backward for a flailing layup attempt that missed badly.

“We weren't gonna attack them just straight on without moving them. I thought we did a good job of moving them. We got some really good looks,” Ferry said. “I mean, Trent Buttrick had a wide-open top of the key three and we had some really good attacks, got in the paint, got in the lane, so I thought that was a good opportunity for us.

“We were trying to put them into ball-screen action and try to get to the rim to get a layup or draw a foul. I thought Sam got in there deep. He wound up turning his ankle. You got to jump stop, play off of two, but you had back to back layups by Izaiah Brockington and Sam Sessoms getting to the rim. In that situation, I think those are pretty good attacks and pretty good plays.”

Unable to finish either attempt in a 2-point ballgame, the Lions’ hopes were dashed when vet Isaiah Livers sank both free throws at the other end with just 5 seconds remaining to go ahead 62-58.

Evaluating the performance, Ferry quickly identified the shortcomings of the afternoon as well as the bright side accompanying them, to his eye.

“I didn't think we played well today. I don't think we played well at all, and we're still in a one-possession game, we can win the game on the road. I think that's a credit to the guys buckling down when we needed to. I thought we executed pretty well out of some timeouts and made some big baskets. And that's who we are. I mean, we just have to finish those plays,” Ferry said. “When you come down to it, it's who can execute better. You got to give them credit. They got to the foul line more. They made 17 free throws, we only took 15.

“That's hard to win that way, yet we still were in the position late in the game to get two layups, and that's what you're looking for. Give yourself a chance to win. Give yourself an opportunity to attack the rim in that situation, and we got there twice. I don't think we'll miss two times in a row if we had to do it again."

Though they'd improved to 38 percent shooting from the floor by the 12-minute mark in the second half, the Nittany Lions finished connecting on just 20 of 65 shots for the game (31 percent), which was 20 more shot attempts than the Wolverines for the afternoon.

What's Next

Penn State won’t play again for 10 days, returning to action when it hosts No. 5-ranked Illinois at the Bryce Jordan Center on Dec. 23 (6:30 p.m., BTN).

Or, maybe they'll play as soon as next weekend.

Returning for finals this week in State College, Ferry maintained that the postponed opener that had been set between the Nittany Lions and Drexel Dragons could still potentially take place.

“We got to lock in and take care of the academic side,” he said. “We're gonna have practices, we're going to fit them in around our schedule and certainly we're going to take a couple of days off, and then get refocused on ourselves to get better and then focus on Illinois. And we're still actually trying to see if we can fit a game in there at the end of finals, so that's going to dictate a lot.”

Aiming to quickly shake off the loss, the group’s second in three games in tough fashion, dropping a lose-from-ahead overtime decision to Seton Hall last Sunday on top of this weekend’s outcome in Ann Arbor, Ferry said the Lions’ collective memories will have to be short.

“We're gonna have to regroup and get ready for the next game. Learn what we did right, learn what we did wrong, and then get ready for Illinois, who's what, number five in a country?” he said. “It doesn't get any easier, but we just got to do a better job executing on both sides of the ball.”

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