5 takeaways from Penn State’s loss — and missed opportunity — on the road against Nebraska
Penn State missed an opportunity to earn a conference road win Sunday, falling to the Nebraska Cornhuskers 72-63 in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Here are five takeaways from the Nittany Lions’ loss.
Nebraska starts hot
Penn State saw itself fall behind by double digits early on in Sunday’s game thanks to a scorching shooting start for the Cornhuskers. They started the game by making four of their five shots from beyond the arc and that was the key catalyst behind their 26-15 lead over halfway through the first half. Some of those shots were more open than they should be because of some lackadaisical Nittany Lion defense, but a lot of what happened was just tough shot making from Nebraska.
Nebraska’s Keisei Tominaga led the charge with 10 points for the Huskers in that span, and more than one of his looks came with a high degree of difficulty. That start put Penn State behind early and would require a run from the Nittany Lions to get the game close before the half.
Lundy keeps it close
The run that came wasn’t a team-wide one, which is why Nebraska still led at the half by nine. Senior wing Seth Lundy was on fire from beyond the arc in the first half of the game. Lundy made five of his six attempts from deep in the first half, good for all 15 of his game leading 15 points at the half. The Nittany Lions were desperate for someone to show up on offense in the half, and he saved the day on that end of the court.
He was able to get going despite not having the ball in his hands much, frequently taking advantage of open catch and shoot opportunities. His impact was crucial to Penn State being down 37-28 rather than a much wider margin heading into halftime.
Struggling seniors
This does not apply to Lundy or a few others, but right now Penn State is not getting enough from two key senior contributors. Two primary sources of scoring — for two different reasons — were not good in Sunday evening’s game. Myles Dread and Cam Wynter both struggled to find the bottom of the hoop and both had plenty of opportunities to do so. They combined to go scoreless in the game, missing all nine shots they combined to take, all of which came from beyond the arc.
Wynter has struggled to get to the rim and finish, while Dread has been ice cold from beyond the arc. Those are the two primary scoring areas for the two seniors and without them contributing, Penn State is going to struggle on offense.
Tominaga lights up the Nittany Lions
The Husker guard was good early, scoring those first 10 points to get Nebraska on top, but was even better late. He was as active as it gets off the ball, running around screens to find openings beyond the arc and cutting backdoor when his defender was too concerned with those looks from deep. He found space all over the place in Penn State’s defense and tormented the Nittany Lions for all 31 minutes he was on the floor in the game.
Those easy looks kept him hot, but the tough ones in crucial moments — from well beyond the arc or with a defender all over him — were the ones that kept Penn State at arm’s length.
Missed opportunity
This was a golden opportunity for the Nittany Lions to put themselves back in position to go .500 in conference play during the regular season. That is the bar the Nittany Lions must reach if they want to have a chance to make the NCAA Tournament. Right now, they need to win an away game to make that happen and this is one of two that they were going to be in position to win, with the other coming up this month against Minnesota.
With this chance blown, the pressure increases the rest of the way. Penn State has to win every home game from here on out and has to knock off the Gophers when they head to Minnesota.
