Penn State Basketball blown out by Iowa Hawkeyes
By Evan Smith
Penn State Basketball struggled to keep it close, dropping a blowout loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes Saturday afternoon
Penn State Basketball fought hard but fell in Iowa City to the Iowa Hawkeyes 68-51.
The Nittany Lions started Seth Lundy, who didn’t travel to Columbus 6 days ago. Lundy returned with the normal starters Harrar, Pickett, Lee and Sessoms.
Penn State was intent on trying to take out Keegan Murray, the Hawkeyes leading scorer, and the second-leading scorer in the nation, but that resulted in some wide open Iowa looks from three early.
The Hawkeyes drained two-of-five early threes, and despite a classic end of shot clock fadeaway from Pickett, Iowa led 14-7 at the 14:06 mark.
Penn State Basketball was struggling to force their slower pace of play of the game as Iowa was finding shots in transition.
The Lions shot themselves in their own foot by committing six turnovers in their first 13 possessions.
Cornwall entered the game for the first time in the past three games, missing his first three. Out of the timeout, Lundy hit an end of shot click three, sparking Dick Jeradi to say “no team in the nation makes more end of shot clock shots.” (fact check: true)
Cornwall got away with an uncalled travel for an and-1 to cut the Hawkeye lead to 3 and Penn State switched to a zone with Iowa sharpshooter Bohannon on the bench and another Pickett back to the basket bucket made it 16-15 Iowa at the under eight timeout. The pace had significantly slowed to the Lions’ favor.
True to form, Sessoms drained the Lions third end of shot clock three to tie the game at 20 all but Penn State’s TENTH first half turnover gave the ball back to Iowa.
This game had the feel of ‘its just a matter of time‘ and despite being within 30-25 at the half, Penn State’s offense was never going to give them a chance.
Nevertheless, solid Nittany Lion defense kept them within 3, 44-41 with just over 11 minutes to after a Myles Dread three. From there, Iowa finished the game on a 24-10 run to win (and cover the 11 point spread) easily.
Turnovers were the easy reason to explain this loss…the Nittany Lions had 18 turnovers on the game. Despite rebounding well in the first half, Iowa had 10 offensive rebounds in the second half alone to win the rebounding battle 37-34. Not known for their three point shooting, Penn State chucked up 25, only making 7.
Jalen Pickett led the Nittany Lions with 15 points, their only player in double digits. Dread added 9 and Lundy had 8 (on 11 shots). The starting frontcourt finished 4-20 from the floor.
Penn State heads to Indiana, who will be looking for revenge from their loss in the Bryce Jordan Center earlier this season. That game is Wednesday at 8:30 pm on the Big Ten Network.