Nittany Lions set to host Canisius at Rec Hall

The Penn State men’s basketball team will call Rec Hall home again this week.

The Nittany Lions (5-3) practiced in the building Wednesday ahead of their matchup with Canisius (3-4) at 7 p.m. Thursday. It is the first of two games at Rec Hall, where Penn State played from 1929-96, and marks the second time the team has played in the gym in three years.

The Nittany Lions will also play Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday.

“I think there’s a lot of tradition here and a lot of history here,” Penn State coach Patrick Chambers said at his press conference at Rec Hall on Wednesday. “I think the alums and maybe the students whose parents went here, they heard about Rec Hall and maybe they want to come back, so you kind of tap into some emotions.”

It’s a chance to look back at the program’s history and provide the fans and players with a different experience.

Chambers recalls the first return to Rec Hall fondly despite a heartbreaking 81-79 overtime loss to Princeton in December of 2013.

The Nittany Lions enjoyed a home-court advantage.

Chambers said everything surrounding the game was positive.

And now, they’re preparing for Canisius with a different team.

Penn State is coming off a 76-66 loss to George Washington, a team that improved to 8-1 and sits just outside the AP Top 25 Poll. The Colonials led by as many as 18 points, but Chambers took some positives away from the loss.

The Nittany Lions cut the deficit to nine points late. Shep Garner and Brandon Taylor both turned in strong performances — Garner finished with 22 points and no turnovers in 38 minutes and Taylor scored 11 of his 15 points in the second half. And Payton Banks battled through a fever to score 10 points in 32 minutes.

“We have to clean up our habits,” Chambers said. “And we got to be a little bit more disciplined, we got to get a little bit more trust out there and then you’ll be able to compete with those top-25 teams.

“And that’s the goal, so I’m disappointed we lost, there’s no question, but I definitely saw some fight in our team and I saw some no let-up in our team.”

Chambers said he thinks he’s been more in control and calm on the sidelines with a young team. When the coach screams and yells at his players, he said, it’s more for motivation. He knows he has to let them play through their mistakes.

The Nittany Lions are still working to improve.

Chambers said they took steps on the defensive end until the George Washington loss. The team’s defense and rebounding is better than the start of the year, but Chambers said the Nittany Lions can share the ball more and need another scorer to step up.

“We’re getting there,” Chambers said. “It’s definitely been a little bit of a process, though, and we got to be a little bit patient here.”

Though Penn State has a young team, its veterans were a part of the game against Princeton at Rec Hall in 2013.

Taylor and Donovon Jack started and played heavy minutes that day.

The Nittany Lions led by 20 points with less than nine minutes to play, but Princeton came back to stun them.

“They remember how awesome it was,” Chambers said of his veteran players. “Obviously it was a storybook until the ending. Sometimes you don’t get the ending. Sometimes Rocky does lose.”

This time, Penn State aims to enjoy the history of the building with a different ending.

Notes: Chambers said freshman Josh Reaves is still banged up after hurting his hip last Saturday. Reaves scored two points in 17 minutes against George Washington. … Canisius was ranked 11th in the nation in scoring with 87.3 points per game through Tuesday’s games. … Canisius guard Malcolm McMillan is averaging 21.3 points per game, good for 20th in the nation.

This story was originally published December 9, 2015 at 11:23 PM with the headline "Nittany Lions set to host Canisius at Rec Hall."