Defense failing Nittany Lions in losses

When Penn State coach Patrick Chambers looked at his team’s offensive statistics Tuesday night, he was pleased.

If you had told him the Nittany Lions would commit just five turnovers, he said, he thought his team would win. If you had told him the Nittany Lions would score 74 points, he said, he would have liked his team’s chances.

But immediately after mentioning the favorable numbers, Chambers talked about why they weren’t good enough in an 86-74 loss to Radford.

“Obviously we didn’t get enough stops,” Chambers said.

Defense has been the problem for the Nittany Lions in back-to-back losses. And Penn State (2-2) faces another team capable of lighting up the scoreboard when it hosts Bucknell (3-2) at 1 p.m. Saturday.

The Nittany Lions gave up a combined 29 3-pointers in losses to Duquesne and Radford. Both opponents shot better than 60 percent from the field in the second half and won by double digits.

The Bison have scored at least 80 points in every game and are averaging 86.2 points per game this season — good for 27^th in the country through Thursday’s games, just ahead of Duquesne’s average of 86.0 points per game.

It will be another test for Penn State’s young core.

“It’s a process,” Chambers said. “We got to embrace it and we got to just keep getting better. I don’t mean to sound redundant, but the goal’s to be the best team we can be starting in January. And we’re gonna get there because these guys want to get there.”

Senior guard Chris Hass leads Bucknell in scoring with 18.8 points per game. He’s made a team-high 13 3-pointers on 33 attempts (39.4 percent). Hass scored 14 points and went 3 for 4 from deep — part of a 10 for 16 team effort — against Penn State last season.

The Nittany Lions won 88-80 in their second-highest scoring game of the year — topped only by a double-overtime loss to Charlotte. D.J. Newbill led four players in double figures with 28 points that day at Sojka Pavilion.

But even without Newbill, who was the Big Ten’s leading scorer a year ago, scoring hasn’t been the primary concern for Chambers.

Penn State bounced back from a 52-point effort in the loss to Duquesne to score 74 against Radford. Five players scored in double figures. Julian Moore paced the team with a career-high 16 points. Shep Garner dished out a career-high eight assists, spearheading a 13-assist, five-turnover night for the team.

But defense dominated the discussion after a second straight loss.

When asked how many games Chambers could expect his team to win with these kind of defensive efforts, the coach said “not many.”

“There’s no room for error for us on the defensive end,” Chambers said.

Chambers said his team needed to improve its help defense and get better at getting over ball screens.

He said there’s a lot of work to do.

Senior forward Brandon Taylor said the breakdowns can be fixed with hustle and a better grasp of defensive positioning.

“I think it’s just playing hard, playing harder, and sprinting to spots on defense and knowing your spot and knowing where to be on defense,” Taylor said. “Once we know the rotations for sure and we just play harder, it’s just gonna be a lot easier.”

Chambers said he wouldn’t use the loss to Radford as a teaching moment for his players.

He did that after the loss to Duquesne.

Now, Chambers said his team has to watch film and continue to work at practice to get better.

And defense is the focus.

“We can do a better job of making (opponents) uncomfortable,” Chambers said.

Notes: Nathan Davis is in his first season as Bucknell’s head coach. He was hired in April, replacing Dave Paulsen, who took the head coaching job at George Mason after last season. Davis was an assistant coach at Bucknell from 2003-08, helping the Bison to NCAA tournament wins in 2005 and 2006. … Bucknell lost 90-82 to Wake Forest and fell 83-81 in overtime to Siena this season.

This story was originally published November 27, 2015 at 11:52 PM with the headline "Defense failing Nittany Lions in losses."