Penn State Basketball gets destroyed by last-place Nebraska at home
By Evan Smith
Penn State Basketball’s home slate came to an embarrassing end, in a blowout loss to last-place Nebraska inside the Bryce Jordan Center Sunday night
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Penn State Basketball’s worst effort of the year resulted in getting blown out at home by last-place Nebraska, 93-70.
The loss all guarantees the Nittany Lions dwindling post-season hopes have ended, as finishing .500 just ain’t gonna happen this year.
Seth Lundy, Jalen Pickett, and Sam Sessoms all had 12 points and John Harrar finished with nine points and seven rebounds.
Fans began leaving with 12 minutes to go in the second half as Penn State Basketball trailed by 27.
The Big Ten, doing Penn State Basketball no scheduling favors, as usual, moved the game from Monday for a ‘home weekend game’ … to a Sunday night at 7pm. The student section wasn’t even close to full and empty seats were everywhere as the game tipped off.
Please, we’re begging you, no more Sunday night games, B1G …
This horrific result ends the home season with a very sour taste. The Nittany Lions were incredibly tough in the Bryce Jordan Center all year, specifically in the conference. Thankfully, Senior Night festivities were held Friday night as this was not the ending John Harrar deserved, playing his last game in the Bryce Jordan Center after an incredible five-year career.
The Lions started the same lineup (Dallion Johnson, Pickett, Lundy, Myles Dread, and Harrar) since the Greg Lee injury, although Lee did warm up with the team.
After making nine second-half threes vs Northwestern 48 hours earlier, the Nittany Lions picked up right where they left off, making their first three threes and five shots overall but their trademark defense seemingly evaporated, giving up 19 points, forcing an early Shrewsberry timeout down 19-13 with 14:05 to go in the opening half.
Lee came in after the timeout and immediately hit a long jumper in his first action in over 3 weeks but Nebraska continued to shoot well, opening up a 13-point lead.
Two fast-break buckets (!) off some sloppy Nebraska passing but more Nittany Lion turnovers gave Nebraska a 15 point lead and despite using one timeout already, Head Coach Micah Shrewsberry did call a timeout to stop the run. Penn State was shooting 50% (12/24) from the field, 40% from three (4/10) after a Sessoms three and layup yet were STILL down 14 thanks to some truly awful defense. Nebraska was owning anyone not named Harrar in the paint and the PSU guards were giving up easy backdoor dunks. This was by far the worst defensive effort from a team known for their defensive tenacity.
The lead ballooned to 18 after two more WIDE open Cornhusker three-pointers and after a Dallion Johnson three changed off the rim as the first half horn sounded, Penn State trailed 49-31. At home. To by far the worst team in the conference.
The team came out of the halftime tunnel significantly faster than normal in hopes to turn the page from their worst half of basketball at home all season.
Giving up a too-easy Nebraska and-1, missing two threes and back to back offensive fouls Harrar probably wasn’t Shrewsberry had in mind as Nebraska pushed the lead to 27 with 11:41 remaining.
The Nebraska lead would get as high as 32 and Penn State never cut it under 20 in the entire half. But at least the Nittany Lions held Nebraska under 100 points, right?
Shrewsberry checked in John Harrar one last time and as he checked out, the remaining fans gave Harrar the ovation he deserved. Few did more for this program than Delco’s finest.
Hopefully, you found a better way to spend two hours on your Sunday evening.
Penn State Basketball travels to #17 Illinois on Wednesday for a 7 pm tip.