Final Score
SE Louisiana - 69
Penn State - 66
Game Story
The Lions fell behind early on poor shooting. SLU on the other hand started out hot with 21 points from Daryl Cohen in the first 16 minutes. But the Lions rallied late in the first half to pull within six at the break. Milos Bogetic kept the Lions in the game with ten points in the first half. Yes, you read that right. Milos.
The Nittany Lions rallied several times in the second half, but each time SLU answered with a run of their own to extend the lead back to six or eight points. But eventually Penn State managed to take their first lead since early in the game when Danny Morrissey drained a 15 foot jump shot with 48 seconds left. He was fouled on the play and made the foul shot to make the score 64-62.
SLU made a shot to tie the game at 64 and Penn State called a timeout with 28 seconds to go. Rather than work the clock to get the final shot, the Nittany Lions fed the ball inside to Cornley who attacked the hoop with 10 seconds to go. He was fouled and made both free throws giving Penn State a 66-64 lead, but they gave the ball to SLU with time to work with. That was mistake number one, which I probably could have lived with.
At the other end Terry Bryant was fouled as he attempted a shot with 0.6 seconds to play. He calmly sank both shots to tie the game back up. Now, rather just inbound the ball and go into overtime, the Nittany Lions tried a long inbounds pass to Claxton at the opposite foul line hoping to draw a foul. But the pass sailed long and went out of bounds and SLU inbound the ball from under their own basket. After getting torched already for 26 points by Cohen, the Lions inexplicably left him open for a jumper in the corner and he made the three point shot as the buzzer sounded.
Breaking It Down
Unbelievable. I'm looking at the boxscore trying to figure out how we lost this game. We outshot SLU 55% to 47%. Rebounding was pretty even with PSU having a 29-28 edge. We had four guys, including Milos, score in double figures. And we went to the free throw line twice as many times as they did.
The difference in the game was, surprise, turnovers. The Nittany Lions didn't have a terrible game with only 13, but SLU only had 8. So SLU did a great job of protecting the ball and we played some terrible defense. The other difference in the game was three point shooting. SLU made 8 shots from beyond the arc and we only made 3. Ballgame.
Point guard Ben Luber missed his second straight game with tendonitis in his ankle.
Next Up
The Lions get a six day break for finals this week. They return to the court to play Maine (5-5) on the 23rd at the Jordan Center. Hopes of playing in March are fading fast as this team continues to underachieve.