Penn State Basketball battles Purdue, Falls to Shrewsberry’s former team
By Evan Smith
Penn State Basketball jumped out to an early lead, but ultimately was overwhelmed by No. 3 Purdue, 74-67 Saturday
Even with a seven-point first-half lead, Penn State Basetball (7-6, 2-3) fell to No. 3 Purdue (13-2, 2-2), 74-67.
Despite this Twitter post just two hours to tip, the curtains were not raised despite the ‘homecoming’ type game for Nittany Lions head coach Micah Shrewsberry facing his old team and mentor, Purdue HC Matt Painter.
https://twitter.com/PennStateMBB/status/1479830250825687046?t=sfAEET7lAyBl_MBX9FWMZg&s=19
With very few tickets available on the online markets between the games, the tweet sure alluded to the first raising of the curtains in the Shrew era but alas, it did not come to fruition.
Shrewsberry started the same lineup of Pickett, Cornwall, Lundy, Lee and Harrar that we’ve seen for the past few games (falling under the if it ain’t broke don’t fix it strategy despite Cornwall’s slumping performance). The Lions were led in scoring by Pickett’s 21 and Lee’s 11.
Purdue’s formidable front court of Jaden Ivey and Travion Williams are a challenge for any defense and Purdue opened up with an easy Ivey slam but PSU got surprising offense by Jalanni White (2 layups) to even score 10-10 at the 14:29 mark.
The Nittany Lions opened a seven-point lead after a Harrar slam, a Pickett fadeaway jumper and-1 and a Lee deep two with Edey on the bench for Purdue with two fouls. This prompted the BTN announcers to call PSU “late shot clock killers”, fitting given their success in that area vs Indiana and Northwestern. Purdue immediately answered with a 9-0 run to retake the lead.
A particular poor sequence by Cornwall (committed an intentional foul after a bad pass turnover) gave Purdue a 3 point lead, even with Ivey (3) and Williams (2) on the bench with foul trouble.
PSU’s effort was strong but late turnovers, odd clock management and silly fouls gave Purdue a 35-30 halftime lead despite PSU winning the rebounding battle.
Sloppy turnovers by Pickett and Sessoms led to a quick Purdue run, forcing a Shrewsberry timeout just two minutes into the half as Purdue opened up a 42-32 lead.
Even as Edey picked up his fourth and Williams his third, Penn State was unable to chip away at the Boilermaker lead thanks to some cold outside shooting after making everything vs Indiana and at Northwestern.
Another end of shot click fadeaway from Pickett a Dallion Johnson three (something Cornwall hasn’t done since Miami), a deep step-back three from Lundy and Greg Lee and-1, and just like that a 12-2 run cut the Purdue lead to four with 8:12 to go.
The never say never Lions continued with back to back to back threes from Dread, Lundy, and White (?!?) to cut the Purdue lead to two and the final media timeout. Greg Lee nailed their fourth three in a row out of the timeout to give their Lions their first lead of the second half.
But as it often does, the cream rises to the top as Purdue immediately answered with a 7-0 run, forcing a Shrewsberry timeout down 5 with 1 minute to go. A Lundy turnover all but sealed the game.
The effort was there all game but good teams take advantage of mistakes and Penn State simply turned the ball over too much (11) which couldn’t make up for 7 second-half threes.