3 Key reasons Penn State Basketball upset Indiana … Can Lions build on it?

Timely threes

Sometimes it takes a little luck to pull off a win like this.

Penn State Basketball won’t shoot 50 percent very often from three, especially not with this roster.

But, the Nittany Lions shot 11-22 from beyond the arc, compared to Indiana’s dismal 4-17 (23.5%) from deep.

For years, the Lions had defensive possessions where they shut down the opponent for 29 (or 34 seconds back when the shot clock was 35 seconds) but the opponent chucks up a contested three-point prayer at the shot clock expires.  Today, finally, the Lions got theirs.

At the 10:28 mark, the Lions were on a nice run up 48-41 when the offense stalled and Sam Sessoms threw up a contested three at the end of the shot clock and drained it to give the Lions the largest lead of the game.  The Hoosiers answered with a 9-0 run, cutting the lead to 51-50 but then Jalen Pickett answered with a similar desperation contested three, pushing the lead back to four.

You can’t bank on these shots, ever, but dang is it nice when they go in.  It demoralizes the opposing defense and when 61 points wins the game, it’s nice to steal 10% of your final score on incredibly low percentage shots.