Penn State Basketball drops brutal loss Again, 60-58 to Michigan State

A furious comeback falls just short, again as Penn State Basketball falls in Michigan State, 60-58 Tuesday night in East Lansing.

Do I have to write about that first half?

Penn State Basketball played their worst half of the season.  I can’t even recap it in paragraph form so let’s try some quick hitters:

• The next time Trent Buttrick stays in front of his defender on the wing will be the first time.
• Sam Sessoms turns the ball over wayyy to much for a point guard.
• Where was Myreon Jones (4 pts, 0-2 from 3, no assists)?
• Seth Lundy barely looks like he belonged in the B1G.  MSU knew he was our weakest defender and went right after him.  On offensive, he consistently put his head down and puts up well-defended, bad shots.  Seth needs to wake up.
• The color commentator, Dan Dakich, is no one’s favorite, but boy was he right when he said MSU is staying in front of their defensive assignment and Penn State isn’t.
• After a media timeout, last year’s “Offensive Coordinator” Jim Ferry drew up some sort of play where Myles Dread attempted some off balancing, leaning jumper.  And after calling his use or lose it timeout, his play somehow had Sam Sessoms losing his dribble at the top of the key unguarded.  No more offensive guru talk for Jim Ferry after this half.
• The Lions are lucky to have John Harrar.  He had 9 points (on just 5 shots), 9 rebounds and just 1 foul in the first half.  Yeah he gave up a few MSU offensive rebounds (5 in total) but he was the long bright spot for the Lions.

See, wasn’t that fun?

Frankly I hope you didn’t watch.

I just saved you an hour of gag-inducing basketball.

Now, to the 2nd Half … Michigan State opened up a 12-point lead but Penn State Basketball battled back, including back to back Harrar buckets, the second an “and-1”.

The Nittany Lions continued shooting cold but picked up the intensity on both ends.

Wheeler challenged the Sparty center and laid it in over him on a fast break and then drew a charge on the other end.  Sessoms 2nd three of the half finally tied it up with 11:50 left but Sparty took the lead right back thanks to a few awful charge calls on the Lions.

A miracle end of shot clock three (happens at least once a game vs Penn State) where the three rolled around a few times pushed Michigan State lead to 6 with 9:36 left.  Could Myreon or Seth score some points for the Lions to capitalize on their comeback efforts lead by Harrar and Wheeler? Lundy got lost on defense right after checking in but Myreon Jones finally answered to cut the lead back to 5 but Lundy committed a shooting foul immediately on the other end.  A Dread (should he be starting over Lundy) cut the lead to three at the under 8 media timeout.

Penn State took its first lead 52-51 at the 6:09 mark after a Myreon Jones layup since the 6-5 scoreline in the opening minutes.  A Sparty free throw tied it up and Penn State was now forced to try to keep the scoreline close as Harrar hit the bench for some very well deserved rest (who’d have thought that sentence would be written this year).  Two Myreon drives had the bench alive as he rose up for a three that just rimmed out.  Izzo called a Spartan timeout with the Lion lead at 56-54 with 4:10 to go.

Two Jones free throws got PSU their biggest lead at 4 but Sparty tipped in a miss to cut the lead right back to 2.  Can the legs of Penn State’s 8 man rotation close one out as opposed to OSU?

A missed Dread floater allowed Sparty to tie it up at 58 all with 2 minutes to go after making two free throws (thanks to PSU committing a lane violation on a missed front end, dang it).  Jones forced up a jumper and front rimmed it allowing MSU to take the lead back 60-58 (1:18 to play) after missing a three, getting the offensive rebound and getting fouled underneath.

Timeout Penn State as our severe end of game issues seemed to coming back one more time (remember at Ohio State, at Indiana, vs Seton Hall, at Michigan…)

After a Fery timeout with 1:15 to go, Penn State drew up something?

Boy it was ugly, as Brockington forced up a contested three as the shot clock expired. Huge wasted opportunity.

An Izzo timeout with 35.2 seconds left as the Lions trailed by 2 with 18 seconds on the shot clock.  Penn State desparately needed a stop and a bucket.  Based on any of our past close games, what would make you think Penn State can do it?

Well, well, well … PSU forced a turnover on the entry pass and called timeout with 16.2 seconds remaining.  Could Ferry draw up a real play this time?  5-21 from three this game but one shot likely wins the game. He got the look Penn State wanted as Dread JUST rimmed out a three off the Harrar ball screen (just like Rutgers a year ago).  Sparty missed the front end, Harrar got fouled but they didn’t call it and PSU could only get a forced three as time expires.  It makes matters worse that Harrar tipped in the miss after the buzzer expired.  Penn State falls 60-58.  Ouch.