Football may be on a temporary hiatus, but there was no lack of excitement for Penn State sports on Saturday night.
The thrills started early Saturday night when the women's volleyball team rolled over Brigham Young. The Lady Lions dominated the #17 ranked Cougars in a 3-0 sweep (30-23 30-15 30-18). The win qualifies the women for the final four in Sacramento next weekend. Their next opponent will be a very strong Cal team that knocked off the #2 seed Nebraska this weekend as well.
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Then later in the evening the men's basketball team pulled off an 89-86 overtime thriller against the Seton Hall Pirates. Here is the Boxscore if you're interested. Penn State played from behind the entire game as Seton Hall came out smoking hot shooting over 60% from the field and from behind the arc in the first half. But Penn State battled back from a 15 point first half deficit and eventually tied the game at 75 with a minute to go on a Talor Battle three point shot.
Battle kept the momentum going into the overtime period as he started off hitting two threes and converting on a drive to the lane to give Penn State an 83-77 lead. The Lions would go on to win, though they once again missed several foul shots down the stretch to let Seton Hall hang around. The captains on this team need to start keeping everyone after practice and telling them nobody leaves until they can hit ten free throws in a row. There's no excuse for hitting 50% from the free throw line like we do game in and game out.
One of the key games to the game was Ed DeChellis switching from man-to-man to the 2-3 zone defense in the second half. Seton Hall was lighting up the scoreboard against our man defense, but the zone slowed them down enough to allow Penn State to get back in it. So those those voices that say Ed can't manage a game just got a little bit quieter today. This is a huge win for the program which should give them a major confidence boost heading into conference play in a few weeks. I still wish I knew how we lost to Rider.
Your interesting stat of the game: Brandon Hassell only played five minutes.
But the momentum didn't stop there this weekend. The #5 ranked wrestling team pulled off a stunning upset of #3 ranked Oklahoma State. The men won by a score of 21-18 and I have no idea what that means in wrestling. I'm sure with a win of this magnitude The Nittany Line is working on his Wrestling Wreport as we speak. I look forward to reading it.
And as if that women's basketball team used some smothering defense to defeat the Georgetown Hoyas by a score of 56-47.