Shooting woes plague Nittany Lions in back-to-back losses

Patrick Chambers didn’t want to overcomplicate what had just happened.

His Nittany Lions, fresh of a 72-61 loss at Rutgers Tuesday, returned to the Bryce Jordan Center Saturday afternoon to host Wisconsin and suffered the same fate. Falling 58-49 in this one, how the Nittany Lions suffered the loss was also very much in the same vein.

So while Penn State’s head coach ticked off the Badgers’ strong performance and cautioned against overreactions, Chambers ultimately landed on the core commonality of the two-game skid.

“We gotta make shots. Let's call it what it is,” Chambers said. “Look, if you told me I was going to hold Wisconsin to 58 points, I'd say we're going to win the game…especially at home, because we shoot the ball better at home. We really do.”

Saturday, they did not.

Held scoreless for the first 8:36 of the game, Penn State started 0-of-12 shooting from the floor before a Lamar Stevens contested turnaround jumper finally put the Nittany Lions on the board.

And while Wisconsin struggled similarly, also held scoreless before the game’s first media timeout at the 15:47 mark, Penn State struggled to find any type of rhythm against the Badgers. Connecting on just 28 percent of their shots and only 3-of-13 from beyond-the-arc, the Nittany Lions found themselves trailing 31-22 at the break.

Worse for Penn State, the Badgers were able to dictate the pace and style of game being played, holding the Nittany Lions to just 31 possessions for the half and a per-possession scoring rate of just 0.71. For a Penn State team that has been among the country’s most explosive through 15 games this season, ranked No. 32 nationally in possessions per game at 75.7, the Badgers’ effectiveness, averaging just 66.2 possessions per outing, in combination with the Nittany Lions’ shooting woes and turnovers,

“There are a lot of things that go into how you analyze the team offensively, and obviously, they've been scoring at a high rate,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said. “So we had to be very good defensively, starting with our transition. And I thought, for the most part, we were good in transition. A couple we let guys get loose for threes, and some of them didn't go down, but they had some looks early in transition. But for the most part, I thought that we're able to get our defense set, which is important.”

Held to just 7 points on fast breaks, Penn State’s identity proved to be dismantled against Wisconsin’s game plan.

Specifically struggling from deep, the Nittany Lions hitting on just 5-of-21 shots from beyond-the-arc with point guard Jamari Wheeler’s 2-of-3 better than Myreon Jones (1-of-5), Myles Dread (0-of-3), and Curtis Jones (0-of-6), Penn State’s flow was disrupted. Entering the Rutgers game with one of the country’s most productive offenses, averaging more than 81 points per outing, the Nittany Lions have now posted 61 and 49 points in their past two outings, Saturday’s production being a season-low.

“I'm going to really simplify this. And you're probably not gonna like it. You gotta make shots,” Chambers said. “When you have open shots, you gotta make shots. And then if you go to the free-throw line, you gotta make your free throws, and if you can get a deep post up. We got to do the little things just a little bit better in our post stuff.”

Committing to analyzing the issues that have flummoxed his Nittany Lions the past two games offensively, Chambers insisted the issue can and will be rectified sooner rather than later.

“I’ll evaluate our offensive sets, Coach Ferry and I, and we'll see what we can do better,” Chambers said. “But again, I thought we had some good looks both nights. I mean, we had good looks at Rutgers, we had good looks tonight. We gotta make those. You can’t go one for whatever.

“Our three-point shooters, they gotta step up and play with confidence. And I give them that. I keep telling them, you're gonna make the next one. You're gonna make the next one. And I'll continue to say that and they'll start falling, they will. They work too hard. The law of averages, they work too hard.”

Penn State (12-4 overall, 2-3 Big Ten) returns to action Wednesday when it faces Minnesota in Minneapolis (8-7, 2-3) for a 9 p.m. tip.

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