Penn State Basketball’s furious second-half comeback falls short vs. Purdue, ending season
By Evan Smith
Penn State Basketball sprinted to a lead, fell down by double digits, and nearly upset Purdue but the Nittany Lions’ season ends in the Big Ten quarterfinals
Despite a 10 point first half lead, Penn State Basketball fell to No. 9 Purdue 69-61 in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals.
Penn State Basketball finishes their season at 14-17, as they will not receive an NIT bid, and is unlikely to have any interest in a CBI Tournament as the fifth oldest team in the nation.
The Nittany Lions were led by the King of Delco John Harrar, who finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Jalen Pickett added 16 but Seth Lundy only scored 2 points on 0-8 shooting (0-7 for three) and did not play the final two minutes of the game.
Penn State Basketball inserted Myles Dread into the starting lineup (with Lundy, Pickett, Johnson, and Harrar) instead of Greg Lee.
A dream start (featuring two Dread threes, some discombobulated Boilermaker offense, and some generous officiating) gave Penn State a 19-9 lead, with the only bad news being Greg Lee’s two fouls.
Impressive physical defense and a significant shooting percentage disparity in their favor kept the Nittany Lions in the lead. Purdue struggled to put together any run, cutting the lead to just seven at the under-8 media timeout.
Greg Lee got injured after being fouled, resulting in the first minutes Penn State had to play without Harrar or Lee. Purdue got as close as four, trying to rally their significant fan advantage but Pickett hit a huge three over Trevion Williams to push the lead back to seven.
However, Purdue quickly answered with a 5-0 run, punctuated by a Jaden Ivey three and forcing a Penn State shot clock violation. Penn State led by just two, their smallest lead since 4-2.
Out of the under four media timeout, Harrar checked back in as Greg Lee was helped to the locker room. A Harrar free throw (on a very generous call) only briefly stemmed the tide as Purdue took their first lead and forced another shot-clock violation.
As the crowd roared, Penn State head coach Micah Shrewsberry didn’t call time out and Purdue made them pay with an and-1 to push their new lead to five and finish the half up four.
Shrewsberry never used his lose-it-or-lose-it timeout, a very odd choice given his team was playing their third game in three days vs an opponent playing their first.
Being down 4 at the half after leading by ten hurts, but trailing just 35-31 as a double-digit underdog is not a bad first half.
As expected, Purdue immediately pushed the lead up to 9 in the first four-minute stanza, and Myles Dread, the Nittany Lions’ second-biggest player remaining picked up his 2nd and 3rd fouls. BTN announced Greg Lee was on crutches and would not return.
Penn State tried Jevonnie Scott (wearing 34 instead of 13 … seriously what’s up with these jersey issues?) when Harrar rested, and he immediately committed a foul.
Jalen Pickett hit a huge step back three to cut the Purdue lead to five but Purdue answered right away with a three of their own. Penn State had a chance to cut the lead under 5 but a Scott airball three as the shot clock expired resulted in a Boilermaker runout slam by Williams.
Dread picked up his fourth foul, resulting in Shrewsberry playing the incredibly odd Johnson-Lundy-Cornwall-Pickett-Sessoms lineup, where I guess our center was Seth Lundy? No surprise it didn’t work as Purdue pushed their lead to 12, forcing a Penn State timeout.
A Johnson three and Harrar dunk brought PSU to within seven with just less than seven minutes to go.
Jaheam Cornwall snapped a 1-30 streak from beyond the arc to cut the lead to 6 and the refs waived off a Purdue and-1, calling an offensive foul instead, giving Penn State hope!
A Johnson floater capped a 10-2 run bit Zach Edey tipped in his own miss but Cornwall answered with another three, forcing Purdue to call timeout leading now by just three with 4:36 to go.
A Sessoms floater brought the Nittany Lions within one, forcing another Purdue timeout leading just 62-61.
With Lundy surprisingly not in the game, Jaden Ivey was able to get to the basket and made both free throws. After the teams traded missed buckets, Penn State called timeout with 1:16 remaining.
With Lundy still out of the game, Pickett missed a tough end of shot clock fadeaway. The miss gave Purdue a runout and Ivey laid it in over two Nittany Lions. After a Nittany Lion miss, Harrar was forced to foul, down 5 with 28.9 seconds left.
Purdue made one of two, Sessoms missed a contested deep three, all but ending any Penn State chance.
Penn State Basketball’s season is likely over unless they accept a surprise bid to a sub-NIT-level tournament (like the CBI).