Nittany Lions Start Hot, Cool Off, Top Rutgers in 65-64 Thriller
Patrick Chambers and the Nittany Lions had been here before.
Hosting Rutgers Wednesday night, looking to snap a two-game slide and a loss in Piscataway earlier this season, Penn State put together a dominating first-half effort and a comfortable lead.
Maintaining it, however, proved to be problematic.
Building a lead of 21 points, taking an 18-point advantage to the locker room at the half, and holding an edge through the bulk of the second half, a Geo Baker layup and contested jumper left the Nittany Lions staring at their first deficit of the game with 42 seconds left to play.
Still, a dagger 3-pointer from Myles Dread, followed by a Saran Wrap defensive stop on the other end, was enough to give the Nittany Lions a 65-64 win.
“It’s so hard in this league,” Chambers said. “Every night, if you’re not playing at your best, if you don’t give your best 40 minutes, you’re going to find the other end. We didn’t play our best, but we found a way, and we did enough in the second half.”
Absent Myreon Jones, their second-leading scorer and starting sophomore point guard, for a sixth-straight game due to an unspecified illness, the Nittany Lions (21-7 overall, 11-6 Big Ten) needed Dread’s heroics to do so.
Jumping out to a 42-24 lead at the half, thanks in large part to a stifling defensive effort and varied offensive production from Izaiah Brockington off the bench (12 points) and freshman forward Seth Lundy (8 pts), Penn State appeared to be in control in every phase. Facing a Rutgers team that lost five of seven games coming into the Bryce Jordan Center and its 8,345 fans on hand, the Nittany Lions weren’t yet in the clear, though.
The Scarlet Knights made sure of it by reversing the script on the first half.
Shooting 50 percent to Rutgers’ 31, owning a 20-17 rebounding edge, and generating a 14-3 edge on points off turnovers, the Nittany Lions saw those trends upended in the second half.
Forcing Penn State into seven second-half turnovers, Rutgers held a 13-4 edge in points off turnovers. On the glass, the Scarlet Knights produced a 22-20 edge. And points in the paint were dominant for the visitors in the second half, attacking the basket for a 22-10 advantage.
“We were in a storm, man, were we in a storm in that second half,” Chambers said. “And give (Steve Pikiell) credit and what he's done at Rutgers, and I told the guys at halftime, ‘Look, you know, Rutgers. I know Rutgers. They are not going away. This is what they do. This is how they play.
“And, you know what, unfortunately for us, it came to fruition. But there's a lot of lessons to be learned here. We'll watch this film, we'll get better, and definitely need some guys to rest up. We definitely looked a little fatigued there in the second half.”
That fatigue was evidenced by an uncharacteristically dry offensive performance for senior forward Lamar Stevens (9 points on 4 of 13 shooting) to go along with his five turnovers and another four from junior point guard Jamari Wheeler.
Fighting off Rutgers’ biggest run of the game, a 10-0 split that left the Nittany Lions with a mere 51-50 advantage with 10:03 remaining, Penn State’s own 9-0 run wasn’t enough to fully put away the visitors. Instead, missed free throws and scoring opportunities cumulatively set up a scoring drought from the field in the final six minutes before Dread’s big shot.
“It's always a challenge when a team is going on a massive run like that. And how do you stop it? Well, you get to the free-throw line. Well, now you're not making free throws. So there are some challenges there,” Chambers said. “But I think me being calm and poised I think helps the team more than me compounding the problem of screaming and yelling.
“You know, we'll worry about the mistakes on film tomorrow. Right now, keep playing with confidence.”
With the win, the Nittany Lions remain in a tie with Michigan State for second place in the conference standings.
And that, said Chambers, was what mattered most to him.
“Look, it’s on the left side of the column. It’s a win. And we can sit here and say, hey, you blew a 21-point lead, 18-point lead. The bottom line is, we won,” Chambers said. “We won 21 games. And we’ve won 11 in the Big Ten. So let’s be positive.”
They’ll return to action Saturday at noon when they travel to Iowa (19-9, 10-7).
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