Penn State Basketball’s gritty effort not enough, Nittany Lions fall in Wisconsin

Penn State Basketball came up short in the Nittany Lions’ effort to pull off an upset against B1G foe, Wisconsin on Saturday night 

So close and yet so far, Penn State Basketball falls at Wisconsin 51-49.

Penn State Basketball trailed by 12 in the first half 9 in the second half, but was one Myles Dread three-pointer away from an incredible upset.

The Nittany Lions started Daillon Johnson again but no offensive strategies seemed to make any difference as Penn State only scored 13 points in the first half.  Let’s take a look at some of their first-half statistics:

Penn State made one three-point field goal (out of 12 attempts)

Penn State made four two-point field goals (out of 18 attempts)

Penn State committed 8 turnovers

Penn State had zero first half assists

Penn State’s 4-0 run to end the half was their biggest run of the entire first half

What went wrong for Penn State Basketball?

Despite this iteration of the Wisconsin Badgers actually playing a bit faster than past Budgers teams, this felt every bit of the 36-33 B1G Quarterfinal Nittany Lion win from 11 years ago (this was actually somehow BEHIND that pace).  Penn State was shooting bad shoots and missing them…and Wisconsin matched them possession for possession.   Wisconsin only made one three-point shot as well and went 1-4 from the free throw line.  Rebounds were even at 24.

Turning the page, shooting had to improve in the second half for both teams, right?  Wisconsin had a 12 point lead at one point so being down 5 points at the half was basically a miracle.

Back to back threes by Dallion Johnson cut the Badger lead to two (seriously why was Cornwall ever starting over him) at 23-21.  A Dread three that cut have cut the Badger lead to rim out and Wisconsin nailed a three on the other end to push it back up to 7 at the under 16 minute media timeout, 28-21.

Cornwall hit his first three in almost two months to cut the lead back to 4 as the Nittany Lions hit their third three of the half.  A Greg Lee three made it 30-29 Wisconsin and Cornwall had a shot to take the lead but missed and Brad Davison scored his first bucked of the night.

Sessoms answered with a three and Davison hit another for a 2 point lead…and a Sessoms step back three gave Penn State their first second-half lead, 35-34.  Wahl and Sessoms traded buckets again and another wide-open Lee capped a 16-6 run, pushing the Nittany Lion lead inexplicably to 4, 40-36 causing Greg Gard to call timeout.

How would the Badgers answer?  Well, a really quick 7-0 run was the answer and despite the crowd going nuts at Kohl Center, Micah Shrewsberry did not call timeout (a familiar refrain this season).

Even after a foul call to the media timeout, Penn State wasn’t able to draw up anything but a stepback fadeaway three from Sessoms at the shot clock buzzer that clanged off and Wisconsin drained another wide open three to push the lead to 6.

There really isn’t any explanation for why with three timeouts, Shrewsberry continues to refuse to use one to stop momentum.

This isn’t the NBA you can’t use it to advance the ball at the end of the game. Sigh.

Out of the under 4 media timeout, Wisconsin drilled another three, capping a 13-0 run and still no timeout called.

Penn State Basketball missed another three instead.

Sessoms hit two free throws and finally Lundy drained a shot deep in the shot clock to cut the Badger lead to 4 with two mnutes to go.  A Wisconsin miss, an almost Sessoms turnover (initially ruled off PSU but was overturned) and a miracle step back end of shot clock banked in jumper cut the lead to two and PSU has the ball one minute to go with a chance to steal the game.

Dread made an excellent backdoor cut for an easy lay-up and the GAME WAS TIED.  Wisconsin got an easy lay-up and Penn State called timeout with 27 seconds left.

Wisconsin had two fouls to give and used their first with 12.2 seconds to go and Penn State used another timeout.  Would PSU go for the tie or the win with the chance to get their first-ever win at the Kohl Center?  What play would Shrewsberry draw up?

After barely getting the ball into Lundy, Penn State was forced to use their last timeout, now with 10.1 seconds left.  Sessoms inbounded to Pickett who was fouled with the Badgers last foul to give, 6.1 seconds left.  Pickett inbounded to Dread at the top of the key and got a decent look but it bounced off, and the rebound fell to the ground as time expired.