Penn State men’s basketball loses to Iowa on the road in Big Ten action
Penn State men’s basketball went on the road to Iowa City for a Saturday evening game and was unable to knock off the Iowa Hawkeyes in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Nittany Lions fell to the Hawkeyes 68-51.
The Nittany Lions added reinforcements since their loss to Ohio State Sunday night on the road, with the return of forward Seth Lundy. Lundy — the team’s best wing defender — missed the game against the Buckeyes, but traveled with the team to Iowa City.
The junior forward got the start for Penn State, but it was forwards Greg Lee and Jalanni White who took on star Iowa forward Keegan Murray in the early portion of the game.
Iowa got off to a hot start with the ball, thanks to eight early point from Patrick McCaffery, son of head coach Fran McCaffery, which included two made 3-pointers.
The Nittany Lions had offensive struggles that allowed the Hawkeyes to build an early lead: Penn State turned the ball over seven times in the early going. Penn State’s defense kept the score close enough, despite the Hawkeyes’ hot start, and the Lions went into the under-eight media timeout down one point at 16-15.
They continued to struggle with turnovers, finishing the first half with 13. The combination of those issues and the team shooting only 35% from the field in the half made it all the more surprising that they only trailed by five after the game’s first 20 minutes. Iowa was only able to score nine points off those turnovers, allowing Penn State to keep it close at 30-25.
Lundy led Penn State in the half with six points, while McCaffery led the Hawkeyes with eight.
The second half began in Iowa’s favor with the Hawkeyes adding to their lead while Penn State struggled offensively. The Lions made a push, though, and cut the lead to three at 44-41.
Iowa pushed back with a run of its own and extended its lead to nine at 58-49 with fewer than four minutes remaining in the game.
The situation didn’t improve much from there for the Nittany Lions, with the Hawkeyes keeping them at a distance the rest of the way.
The Nittany Lions ultimately couldn’t climb back into the game and fell to Iowa 68-51. With the loss Penn State is 8-8 overall and 3-5 in the Big Ten.
Player of the game
Iowa forward Keegan Murray: Penn State defended Murray relatively well in the game, but his presence alone opened things up offensively for the Hawkeyes. Whenever he was on the court, the Nittany Lions were forced to pay extra attention to him. Murray scored 15 points to lead the Hawkeyes and added much more than was indicated in the box score. Despite Lundy’s success for Penn State as a defender this season and in the game, the team defense was unable to stop the rest of the Hawkeyes for the entirety of the game.
Stat of the game
33: That’s the percentage Penn State shot from the floor in Iowa City on Saturday evening. The Nittany Lions struggled to make shots against the Hawkeyes, who were able to make their own looks to earn the victory. Penn State has a limited number of shot creators on its roster and those players were unable to get easy looks for themselves consistently. Jalen Pickett finished with 14 points, but those points came on 12 field-goal attempts, while Lundy, the team’s leading scorer this season, scored eight points on 11 attempts. The Nittany Lions needed more offensive firepower overall and they just don’t have enough sources to make up for lower efficiency games from their best players.
Up next
At Indiana: Penn State will be on the road for its third game in a row when it takes on the Indiana Hoosiers on Wednesday night in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The Nittany Lions have already faced the Hoosiers once this season, earlier in January when they defeated Indiana, 61-58, in the Bryce Jordan Center.
This will be their first opportunity for a sweep this season in the Big Ten. The Hoosiers entered the weekend at No. 25 in the KenPom rankings after a 68-65 victory over rival Purdue, with a 14-4 record overall and a 5-3 record in conference play.
