Here’s 3 takeaways from Penn State men’s basketball’s 83-79 loss to No. 13 Ohio State
Penn State men’s basketball was unable to to extend it’s winning streak to three games Wednesday night. The Nittany Lions fell 83-79 on the road to the No. 13 Ohio State Buckeyes. The loss drops the team to 5-7 overall and 2-5 in the Big Ten.
Here are three takeaways from the loss.
1. Sessoms’ absence hurt the Nittany Lions early ...
Penn State came out of the gate cold offensively, especially when the bench took the floor. The team didn’t move with purpose and struggled to generate open shots in the early portion of the first half. The second unit’s primary initiator, Sam Sessoms, was out for the game with an ankle injury and it hurt the team dearly.
There wasn’t enough ball handling on the court for the Nittany Lions to earn easy looks and it led to plenty of stagnation on offense. They didn’t move well without the ball and dribbled the shot clock away. Sessoms has the ability to mask those situations with his ability to score in isolation and create looks for himself and others.
2. ... and Lundy made up for it
Sessoms’ absence meant somebody had to pick up the slack, and Seth Lundy did just that against the Buckeyes. The sophomore wing has been hot and cold this season for the Nittany Lions and Wednesday night was very much the former. He didn’t force his shots but showed a willingness to take them when he was open, which hasn’t been the case all season. He finished the first half with 17 points to pick up the team’s offense and keep Penn State in the game.
Without Lundy playing like he did in his 18 first half minutes, it’s hard to envision the Nittany Lions keeping the game as close as they did and going into the half only down four. Instead, that’s exactly what happened and the offense showed plenty of improvement in the second half, until the final few minutes of action.
3. Penn State couldn’t close it out
The Nittany Lions needed to generate some of those shots from Lundy late in the game, but they just weren’t able to and couldn’t close out a chance for an upset victory against the Buckeyes. They led late Wednesday night, but couldn’t make a field goal for an extended stretch and allowed Ohio State to get back in the game and earn the win. Their shots weren’t necessarily bad, but the outcomes were too often poor. That has been the case at times for a team that can be streaky from the floor.
Sometimes shots just won’t fall, but it doesn’t help when the team can’t create enough to get easy opportunities in important situations. Wednesday night was a mixture of both.
