Here are 3 takeaways from Penn State men’s basketball’s 92-82 loss to No. 4 Ohio State
Penn State took a loss Thursday evening at home against the No. 4 Ohio State Buckeyes. With the 92-82 loss, the Nittany Lions drop to 7-11 overall and 4-10 in the Big Ten, likely dashing any hopes they had of earning an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Here are three takeaways from the loss.
1. Penn State finally hits open shots but loses key piece
The Nittany Lions were due for some hot shooting after how many open looks the team had been missing, often with its best shooters struggling the most. They saw that come to fruition Thursday night when the team exploded for 43 first-half points, including 21 points from 3-point range on 7-of-13 shooting from beyond the arc. They were making shots from all over the floor and most of the team’s best shooters got themselves involved early and often in the offense.
However, it was senior guard Jamari Wheeler who led the way with 11 points, nine of which came from beyond the arc. Wheeler’s first half was a big reason the two teams were close after the game’s first 20 minutes.
2. Second half run buries the Nittany Lions
Penn State managed to build a 61-54 lead with 14:04 left in the game, but what unfolded over the next 4:24 played a major role in the outcome. Not only did the Buckeyes shred the Nittany Lions’ defense, but they also completely stifled them on the other end of the court. The result was a 15-0 run and a 69-61 lead that proved to be too much for them to overcome.
Two made 3-pointers helped fuel the run but Penn State interim head coach Jim Ferry choosing not to call a timeout to pour water on the situation may have allowed the fire to continue burning longer than it could have. His decision may not have had an impact on the game, given how well Ohio State was playing on both ends of the court at the time, but calling a timeout would have given his guys a chance to reset and take the Buckeyes out of the zone they were in. Instead, Ohio State took the eight-point lead and never gave it back.
3. Thursday night was a missed chance for redemption
The Nittany Lions entered the matchup with Ohio State coming off two bad losses. The first was a two-point defeat on the road against the worst Michigan State team they’re likely to see as long as Tom Izzo is at the helm of the Spartans. And the second was an embarrassing home loss to then-winless-in-the-conference Nebraska by a point in the Bryce Jordan Center. Naturally, those defeats led to a team looking to get back on track against a top-five team in the Buckeyes.
Instead, what resulted was a blown opportunity to re-calibrate their season. Their NCAA Tournament chances were low coming into the game, but a win could have made up for the two recent bad losses and put them firmly back on the bubble. Instead, those chances of making the tournament are almost completely reliant on winning the conference tournament in arguably the strongest conference in the country.
This story was originally published February 18, 2021 at 10:35 PM.
