2/28/2024 basketball Edit

Penn State's comeback effort falls short in 90-81 loss to Iowa

Dylan Callaghan-Croley • Happy Valley Insider

Editor

The Penn State Nittany Lions men's basketball team couldn't overcome an early 17-point deficit on Tuesday night to defeat the Iowa Hawkeyes in Iowa City, instead taking a 90-81 loss.

With the loss, Penn State falls to 14-15 overall this season and 8-10 in Big Ten play, the Iowa Hawkeyes are now 17-12 on the season including a 9-9 record in conference play.

The Nittany Lions were led by center Qudus Wahab and guard RayQuawandis Mitchell in the game with 18 and 16 points respectively.

Mitchell, who has seen his role grow since the dismissal of Kayne Clary had his best game as a Nittany Lion including going 6-for-6 from the field while collecting five rebounds.

Wahab was 8-for-11 from the field himself and had seven rebounds in the losing effort, Ace Baldwin was the only other Nittany Lion to finish with a double-digit scoring effort, with 11 points while also totaling four rebounds and nine assists.

Unfortunately for the Nittany Lions, the Hawkeyes got an unbelievable performance out of star guard Payton Sandfort.

While he was just 3-for-11 from the field, Sandfort totaled 26 points thanks to an 18-for-19 effort at the free throw line to go along with 10 rebounds and 10 assists for the first ever triple double in the history of the program.

As a team, the Nittany Lions shot a respectable 45.1% for the game including 51.5% in the second half, however, their slow start on Tuesday was their ultimate downfall, their once 17-point deficit being too big to overcome.

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In the first half on Tuesday, the Nittany Lions made just three of their first 13 shots of the game while the Iowa Hawkeyes went 7-for-11 over the same stretch, taking an 18-6 lead. Quickly, that lead would grow from 12 to 17, with Iowa up 29-12 at the 9:43 mark. It was the Hawkeyes’ biggest lead of the game.

The Nittany Lions would begin to find momentum in the final minutes of the opening half, making eight of their final 14 shots and outscoring Iowa 27-18 over the final eight and half minutes. They would head into halftime facing an eight point deficit.

That strong shooting would continue into the second half for the Nittany Lions, as they came out of the break, hitting eight of their first 11 shot attempts of the half, to cut Iowa's lead to as close as 51-49 within the first three minutes of the half.

A few seconds later, Penn State guard Ace Baldwin would be called for a technical foul, after official Kepp Kissinger believed Baldwin yelled something towards him. It was the Nittany Lions second of the game, after Mike Rhoades received a technical earlier in the game.

It was that foul that flipped momentum back to the Hawkeyes. Following the technical foul, Iowa would quickly extend their two point lead back into a double digit lead. During that stretch of time, the Nittany Lions would also miss six consecutive shots, which eventually allowed the Hawkeyes to get out to a 73-58 lead with under 10 minutes to play.

The Nittany Lions would finish strong after that slump, making nine of their final 15 shots, narrowing Iowa's lead to as a few as six points with a minute to go.

However, in foul trouble and facing a deficit, the Nittany Lions would send the Hawkeyes to the line 25 times in the second half, including 13 attempts for Payton Sandfort, who would make all 13. The Hawkeys as a whole were 22-for-25 in the closing half at the line, helping seal their victory. The opportunities at the line were not as prevalent for the Nittany Lions in the second half, making just 5-of-11 free throw attempts.

UP NEXT

The Nittany Lions have just two games remaining this regular season with their next coming on March 2 as they travel to Minneapolis to take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers at Williams Arena. Minnesota defeated the Nittany Lions in late January 83-74 at the Bryce Jordan-Center.