Penn State shocks No. 12 Illinois in 90-89 win at Rec Hall
The most recent chapter of Penn State basketball in Rec Hall was one that won't be forgotten anytime soon.
The Penn State Nittany Lions shocked No. 12 Illinois on Wednesday evening by erasing a 14-point second half deficit to defeat the Illini 90-89. It's the Nittany Lions second win over a top-15 opponent at home this season.
The Nittany Lions were able to find a way to win the game despite being outrebounded by Illinois 49 to 25 in the game while also allowing Illini star guard Terrence Shannon Jr. to have a 35 point, 11 rebound performance.
For the Nittany Lions, Nick Kerns led the way with 22 points while Qudus Wahab and Zach Hicks both finished with 13 points a piece.
Ace Baldwin had a quieter game scoring wise with 10 points including none in the second half but had 12 assists in the win. It's Baldwin's second double-double of the season.
The Nittany Lions with the win improved to 13-14 on the season including 7-9 in conference play. Illinois drops to 19-7 and 10-5 in Big Ten play.
Despite once being down 14 points on Wednesday night, Penn State was competitive with the Illini for most of the game including leading for 14:30 minutes of the contest.
The Nittany Lions in the first half came out ready to play, taking an immediate lead in the first minute and half before growing that lead to as many as nine points by the 11:00 minute mark of the half.
It was a total team effort in the first half of Wednesday's matchup for Penn State with eight different Nittany Lions scoring. Ace Baldwin and Qudus Wahab both had 10 points while bench members Leo O'Boyle and Rayquawndis Mitchell both got in on the action with three and four points respectively.
Illinois would make a pair of strong runs over the remainder of the first half including a 7-0 run that turned a 34-31 Penn State lead into a 35-34 lead for the Illini. Illinois would extend that lead to seven by halftime.
Coming out of halftime, Illinois would pick up where they left off heading into overtime, outscoring Penn State 10-6 in the opening four minutes of the second half to extend their lead to 61-47. It appeared that all the magic from the first half may have slowly seeped away from the Nittany Lions and in return the Illini were going to cruise to a victory.
However, it was after taking that 14 point lead that the Nittany Lions would begin chipping away.
The Nittany Lions were able to get it to a five point game with 6:30 remaining but Illinois would immediately go on a 7-0 to make it a 82-70 game with 5:28 to go. The Nittany Lions would once again cut it down to seven before the Illini answered back again to make it 87-77 with 2:30 to go. No matter what the Nittany Lions tried, the Illini had an answer.
Then finally, a breakthrough.
Zach Hicks would get a jumper in the paint and hit one of his two made three-pointers in the game to make it an 87-82 game with just 1:50 remaining.
Illinois would get two back on a pair of free throws but the Nittany Lions still had life and that's when the magic began to take place inside Rec Hall.
After a missed jumper by Terrence Shannon on the other side of the court, Jameel Brown would get the rebound and quickly worked his way downcourt for a three-pointer with 35 seconds left to cut the Illini lead to four at 89-85.
Shannon, who had been so good for Illinois all night and possibly looking to make up for his miss just a few seconds earlier, would then make a crucial mistake, trying to force his way up the court between Puff Johnson and Jameel Brown.
Johnson would get a hand on the ball, stripping it away from Shannon before picking up the loose ball and getting the lay up to make it an 89-87 game with 35.1 seconds remaining.
After the costly turnover from Shannon, Illinois would get the next inbound pass up the court successfully.
However, with multiple Nittany Lions' surrounding Illini forward Coleman Hawkins, it appeared that Hawkins had traveled but there was no call. Instead, Penn State would be called for a foul, sending Hawkins to the line.
Free throw No.1 No good.
Attempt No. 2. No good.
Zach Hicks gets the rebound and gets the ball to Ace Baldwin with roughly 10 seconds to go.
At this point, Penn State head coach Mike Rhoades had a timeout to spare, and the Nittany Lions were having plenty of success in the game when it came to inbound plays. No one would've blamed him had he called a timeout.
Instead, Rhoades allowed the Nittany Lions to play on.
Ace Baldwin would drop the ball back off to Zach Hicks near the top of the key, who looked for the game winning three.
The attempt with just 4.2 seconds left in the game would roll off the rim and out, but Coleman Hawkins' charging towards Hicks on the attempt, would foul Hicks, giving the Temple transfer a chance to potentially tie or win the game for the Nittany Lions.
Three free-throws later, Penn State had their first lead since late in the first half at 90-89.
The Illini would have just 4.2 seconds to win the game.
After finding a way to get open near midcourt, Illinois's guard Justin Harmon would look to find the game winner and was able to get to the basket as time expired for a valiant attempt but was unable to get it to fall as it rolled off the side of the basket.
As the ball hit the ground, the raucous crowd at Rec Hall stormed the court around the Nittany Lions to celebrate the team's second signature victory of the season.
Wednesday night's win at Rec Hall is a big one for Penn State and one that comes in the wake of some internal adversity as it was announced earlier this week that star guard Kayne Clary was no longer with the program. While barring a magical Big Ten Tournament run, the Nittany Lions won't see a postseason tournament this postseason, that being said, Wednesday's win could prove to be a big building block for Penn State and head coach Mike Rhoades.
UP NEXT
Illinois was the toughest remaining team on Penn Sate's regular season schedule by far and now the Nittany Lions will host the Indiana Hoosiers on Saturday at the Bryce Jordan Center.
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