Another day, another late game blown lead as Penn State Basketball fell 62-61 to Nebraska Sunday at the Bryce Jordan Center, in heartbreaking fashion on Valentine’s Day.
The first half was a bit ugly (again).
Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg sunk into a deep zone to, gulp, not let John Harrar beat them? Although the Nittany Lions got an early five-point lead, and was able to extend it to eight at the peak, cold shooting from the Lions made Hoiberg look like a genius.
Dread, who started over Seth Lundy, was 3-6 from three, but Wheeler was a cold 0-4.
Odd things like getting burned on back-doors defensively and Myreon Jones again missing two free throws allowed Nebraska to take a three-point lead until a Dread three before the half tied up the game.
Nebraska came out of the half with back-to-back and-ones (missing one of the two free throws) to open up a five-point lead.
A Brockington filthy and-one ally-oop from Sessoms right over the Nebraska center ally oop 13:46 could be the needed Nittany Lion spark but then Nebraksa hit a contested three to push it back to seven.
Myreon Jones missed a reversed layup on a wide open fast break and then forced it when he didn’t have numbers for a jump ball.
Lundy created a steal and got a wide open look to cut it two but the shot rimmed out and Nebraska responded burning Buttrick for an eayup to build it back to 7 at the 9:42 mark and Buttrick responded by turning it over on the other end and PSU gave up a Nebraska dunk for their largest lead of the game, forcing a Jim Ferry timeout with 9:15 to go. Another missed three out of the timeout followed by a Nebraska layup and another missed three gave the Cornhuskers their new largest lead at 11.
Was the deficit too big?
Where could a Penn State spark come from?
How about a “pick-six” by Wheeler for a layup and a block and steal by Lundy who found a cutting Harrar on the fast-break to cut it to 7, immediatley forcing a Fred Hoiberg timeout with 7:40 to go. A quick defensive stop led to a wide open Brockington three but it missed.
Story of the game.
Another stop and Myreon missed another layup.
Seriously, the story of the game.
Two Dread free throws after some more great defense by Harrar cut the lead to five with 5:10 to go and another defensive stand made it seem like the Lions were about to take some momentum but a Brockington travel instead of shooting the open three turned the ball back over to the Cornhuskers.
Nebraksa was starting to take the air out the ball completely as the Lions forced another tough shot but still couldn’t cut into the 5 point lead as Harrar turned the ball over. Nebraska returned the favor as we headed into the under 4 media timeout trailing 60-55, 3:38 to go.
Penn State Basketball head coach Jim Ferry drew up well a bunch of nothing but Myreon got his own rebound off a miss and scored on a putback layup.
Wheeler then got another steal but got stuffed at the rim and the ball went off the Lions.
STORY OF THIS FREAKING GAME.
Harrar blocked the Nebraska attempt on the other end and PSU had the ball down just 3 with 2:48 to go but another freaking turnover off the Brockington drive allowed Nebraska another chance to extend their lead but great defense by Dread in the paint gave the ball back to the Lions.
YES THEY COULD MYREON JONES FINALLY WAKES UP WITH A THREE POINT SHOT AND ONE. And he actually made the free throw. 1:58 to go, Lions up 1!
Nebraska called timeout with 1:31 left, and three seconds on the shot clock. We already had the “play great defense for 28 seconds but the opposing team hits a crazy shot” possession this half so surely it couldn’t happen again, right?
That’s exactly what happened as the Cornhuskers hoisted a crazy fade away three at the top of the key but it rimmed off. Myreon Jones missed the open jumper but another huge offensive rebound by John Harrar allowed the Lions to work more clock. Dread missed a wide open three (we’ve seen this before) but we got another offensive rebound with 30 seconds left. Jones turned it over (we’ve also seen this before) on the drive and Nebraska drove on Brockington to retake the lead with 12.3 seconds left, 62-61. Penn State time out.
Brockington drove and turned it over and that’s the game. Unbelievable. Wheeler got the inbounds and threw it to Izaiah who drove, kinda got tied up and stripped and that was the game. Penn State didn’t even get a shot off.
Ouch.