Penn State lost its second game of the season in another highly-entertaining basketball game, part of ESPN’s ACC-Big Ten Challenge, on Tuesday night against Clemson, 101-94.
The Tigers offered no easy environment for the Nittany Lions to play in as Death Valley translated indoors, but even that couldn’t stop what turned out to be a two-overtime thriller.
After leading 35-29 at halftime, a comfortable enough lead for this 6-1 PSU team, Clemson wasted no time in the second half grabbing momentum with a 13-2 run over the first 4:50 of the half.
That eased a six-point deficit, turning it into a five-point Clemson advantage. The lead would grow to as many as eight points with 7:22 left in the game, but Penn State still kept it close enough, cutting the lead to as little as 63-32 with 2:49 left.
Clemson then re-extended the lead to seven points over the next two minutes, going up 69-62 with 51 seconds left after a Tyson Hunter three-pointer.
The Tigers had more than enough opportunities to ice the game, but not being in the double-bonus meant that missing the front-end of a 1-and-1 immediately turned into a live ball situation.
Well, Clemson missed four free throws in the final 51 seconds of play and Penn State, having been fouled twice, went 4-for-4 from the line.
A late free throw from Hunter made it a three-point game with 10 or so seconds to go, making it do-or-die time from three, and Andrew Funk made his shot count, banking it in to tie things at 71-71 and force overtime.
Penn State led 83-81 with roughly 10 seconds left in the first overtime after Camren Wynter hit a shot in the paint, only for Clemson to tie things up and force a second overtime with a layup from PJ Hall.
Overtime went the way of the Tigers, forcing Penn State to play catchup in the final minute, but unlike the final minute of regulation, just one shot fell, a Dallion Johnson three-pointer to cut the lead to 96-93, and that was that.
Missed free throws weren’t an issue for Clemson late, going 9-for-10 in the second overtime. The Tigers shot 50.8 percent from the field and 52.8 percent from three while Penn State, who came out shooting 50 percent from the field and 46 percent from three, finished shooting just 40.8 percent from the field and 30.6 percent from three.
Shooting woes plagued the Nittany Lions late and finally bit them in double-overtime, but there’s still plenty of positives to take out of this loss.
Three Penn State players finished with 20+ point nights, led by Wynder’s 26 points. Pickett nearly had another triple-double, with 23 points, seven rebounds and eight assists, and Seth Lundy posted a 23-point, 12-rebound double-double.
The schedule doesn’t get much easier as No. 20 Michigan State comes to State College to begin conference play on Dec. 7 after a week break.
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