Here are five takeaways from Penn State men’s basketball’s 97-67 win over Canisius
Penn State blew out Canisius 97-67 in the Bryce Jordan Center Sunday afternoon, handling a game in which the Nittany Lions played all 13 scholarship players.
However, an injury to a key player could change things moving forward for them.
Here are five takeaways from the Nittany Lions’ blowout victory.
Seth Lundy injury
This is all that matters at this point for Penn State moving forward. Seth Lundy has been great this season and has taken a big step forward in his second year under head coach Micah Shrewsberry. He went down in the first half after turning his ankle and had to be helped off the court. The Nittany Lions need him to be healthy to be as good as they want to be this season, and his status is going to be crucial during Big Ten play. Lundy has been their best and most versatile perimeter defender this season and will be tasked with guarding the opponent’s best player the rest of the way. Without him, each perimeter player will be asked to do just a bit more, increasing the pressure on the whole roster. Not to mention, Lundy has been great offensively thanks to his length and high release point on his shot.
Who steps up?
The obvious question here concerns who steps up if Lundy’s status is in question. Freshman Evan Mahaffey is the most likely candidate if the Nittany Lions go for the direct replacement. He’s an excellent defender, but has to work on his shot from deep. However, he does enough little things on offense to make up for the loss. He’s a good offensive rebounder, can handle the ball and can be the screener in the pick and roll.
If the team goes for the indirect replacement, Dallion Johnson could be an answer. He’s another shooter who can attack closeouts, but is more lacking on the defensive end of the floor. Regardless of who replaces Lundy, they are unlikely to be able to make up for not having him out on the court.
Depth gets action
One of the benefits of this game and the next two games is that the Nittany Lions will be able to get plenty of action for potential replacements. Mahaffey saw time on the court but it was Johnson who had the largest uptick in playing time. He played 15 minutes for the Nittany Lions and stayed within his role on that end of the court.
Johnson should see even more of a workload as the calendar year winds down and Penn State finishes up conference play. That goes for him and the rest of the team’s scholarship bench players, all of whom got action for the Nittany Lions during Sunday afternoon’s game.
Sleepy start
Penn State didn’t exactly start Sunday’s noon game on fire, despite the outcome. The Nittany Lions didn’t take their first lead until there was 6:43 left in the first half, in large part because they played lethargically. These types of early games on the weekend can breed that type of performance but those starts still aren’t ideal.
Fortunately for Penn State, Canisius is not equipped to hang onto a lead for a full half, let alone an entire game. The Nittany Lions can’t come out and play like that against good teams, even if they can get away with it for now.
Taking care of business
That being said, Penn State absolutely smoked Canisius in the second half. They outscored them 55-31 and would have been worse had the team not been rotating more bench players in and doing its best to get their best players off the court. The Nittany Lions did what they needed to do once they got rolling and started making plenty of shots.
They were 13-of-22 from 3-point range and rarely turned the ball over in the game, only giving it away three times. Conversely, Canisius coughed up possession 13 times and that helped lead to its downfall Sunday afternoon.
