Despite late furious rally, Wisconsin holds off Penn State Basketball
By Evan Smith
Penn State Basketball’s Big Ten Tournament came to a close with another heartbreaking loss, this time 75-74 to the Wisconsin Badgers, as a furious second-half rally came up one missed shot short.
The Nittany Lions led by eight at the under eight media timeout in the first half, John Harrar just picked up his second foul on the SOFTEST of calls. From there, Wisconsin went on a 25-7 run to end the half, including a buzzer beating three.
At the under 4:00 media timeout, both teams had taken 17 two-point shots. Penn State Basketball was called for 10 fouls, resulting in 11 Wisconsin free throws (they made all 11). Wisconsin was called for 4 fouls, resulting in zero Nittany Lion free throws.
There’s plenty of blame to go around to end the half, like two poorly designed play calls by Jim Ferry out of a timeout and the inconceivable fact that Myreon Jones wasn’t on the floor for the final four minutes as the Wisconsin lead continued to grow.
Penn State Basketball out-rebounded the Badgers (18-14) and shot 45% from the field and 40% from three but thanks to that foul disparity and 60% Wisconsin three point shooting, the Lions trailed by 10 after leading by 8 just minutes earlier.
The second half started reminiscent of the game at Wisconsin. Credit where credit is due, the Badgers took advantage of that first half run and refused to allow the Nittany Lions to get back into the game for most of the half, leading by as many as 18.
Wisconsin made their first 13 free throws and were shooting above 60% from three mid-way through the 2nd half as they threatened a Big Ten Tournament record for made three pointers (finished just 2 shy with 12 made three pointers). That’s the problem with falling behind to the Badgers.
Penn State though DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO QUIT.
Wisconsin finally missed a free throw (and then another) combined with a 13-2 PSU run cut the lead Wisconsin lead to 5 1:46 left (again with Myreon Jones on the bench) with Brockington’s two free throws. Penn State then forced a Badger turnover and Sessoms hit two more free throws to cut the lead to three!
Great Penn State defense forced a Wisconsin travel with :53 left. Another Sessoms drive cut the Badger lead to just one with 46.2 seconds to go. Wisconsin led 68-50 with almost exactly seven minutes earlier … basically the inverse of the first half.
Penn State Basketball made another defensive stand, and somehow had the ball back with 20 seconds left and a chance to win the game.
Unfortunately, like most of our potential game-winning possessions, there was no real play call and Sessoms forced an ugly shot that was blocked.
Wisconsin ball, game over.
A truly amazing comeback fell just short. And again, Myreon Jones wasn’t on the floor.
It’s a shame the officials took the wind right out of the Lions’ sails because Penn State Basketball deserved a chance to have Harrar and co. battle against the Wisconsin bigs.
And I’m not even going to talk about the painfully obvious missed shot clock violation, giving Wisconsin an extra, undeserved bucket in the first half. But, that’s life in the B1G.
Perhaps Jim Ferry should have brought Harrar back in the game to stop the Badger run and trust his senior wouldn’t pick up his third foul. You can probably already guess Harrar finished the game with, yup, just thse two fouls. Either way, we needed to be a top 10 seed (and the Lions are definitely better than Indiana) to avoid playing in the first day.