Penn State Basketball Falls at No. 19 Michigan State

Malik Hall #25 of the Michigan State Spartans looks to pass the ball against Jalen Pickett #22 and Sam Sessoms #3 of the Penn State Nittany Lions (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images)
Malik Hall #25 of the Michigan State Spartans looks to pass the ball against Jalen Pickett #22 and Sam Sessoms #3 of the Penn State Nittany Lions (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images) /
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Penn State Basketball was knocked off by Michigan State, in Big Ten Conference play Saturday afternoon 

Penn State Basketball fell at No. 19 Michigan State 80-64, Saturday afternoon in East Lansing.

The Nittany Lions finish their December conference slate 0-2 and tied for last place on the conference.  Penn State Basketball is now back at .500 on the year at 5-5.

Penn State Basketball went with a familiar starting lineup (Pickett, Cornwall, Dread, Lundy and Harrar) for the third straight game.  The Lions saw their fiist appearance of the season from Greg Lee (5 points and 2 rebounds) and hopefully the finals week break will mean he’ll see even more run next week at VCU.  Penn State was led in scoring by Seth Lundy with 18 points and John Harrar added 16 points and 11 rebounds.

Both teams traded baskets early but a surprising five Spartan turnovers (and even more surprising zero Nittany Lion turnovers) helped the score close early as MSU had a meager 19-18 ) lead at the under 12 media timeout.

A Sessoms jumper with 6:09 left cut the lead to two but they say good teams finish halves strong and boy did Sparty.  They finished the half on a 15-4 run to lead 42-29 at the break

Despite a John Harrar and-one dunk to start the second half, the Spartan lead ballooned to 19 just minutes in.

Jalen Pickett hit the Lions’ first three of the game (0-10 until that point) to cut the lead to 14.  Greg Lee’s first bucket came from deep as well but Sparty continually crushed the Lions on the glass as they maintained their double-digit lead.  The Lions got as close as 12 on a handful of occasions but never could cut the MSU lead to single digits.

Coach Shrewsberry stayed with an eight-man rotation, refusing Daillon Johnson or Caleb Dorsey any meaningful minutes.  This has become especially frustrating as the Lions have really struggled to get any productivity out of Cornwall (zero points three fouls) despite starting three straight games.  With Lee’s return, the hope would be this previously stretched lineup could receive some reprise.

Turnovers weren’t an issue Saturday (at least in the first half) as the Lions actually forced more than they made, 11-7.

But, the Spartans just destroyed the Lions in the paint, outrebounding them 40-28.  Another telling stat was far too much fouling  (15 to MSU’s 8) and the Spartans getting easier shots as evidenced by their 21 assists to our 14.

The Lions have a week off for the aforementioned finals week break and head back on the road in a week for a 2 pm tilt at VCU.