Under 16: Penn State aggressive in the offensive end, leads to a David Jackson duce to open the game…commentators just mentioned it, PSU up 5-0 in rebounds in the first two minutes of this game. Love the early aggression…A lot of bad misses by both teams off the start…7-6 Michigan
Under 12: Penn State defense looks raggedy as Michigan goes on a quick 8-0 run…Kinda a meh segment out of Penn State. Some poor rotation put them in a hole, and now that they’re behind, they’re playing a more tentative on the other end…15-8 Michigan
Under 8: Nice set out of the timeout leads to a Tim Frazier layup…Frazier and Talor Battle put Penn State on a quick 6-0 run out of the timeout to draw to within one…Michigan lighting Penn State up from three-land to re-establish a nice lead…24-18 Michigan
Under 4: Penn State’s rebounding is keeping them in this thing. Michigan is shooting well, and playing pretty good defense, so the Lions can’t afford to be coughing up second chances , which they aren’t. At least so far, this is shaping up to be a Northwester-like effort. Problem is Michigan plays a different offense…27-26 Michigan
Last 4: Nice last couple of minutes out of Penn State. The last possession kinda went awry, but no points is better than a turnover on the road…29-29
Halftime Notes: A pretty decent all around effort out of Penn State to start. The scoring was streaky at times, but even when the Lions weren’t scoring, they were getting nice off-ball movement and decent looks from all spots on the floor. Defensively, Penn State hung in there. Michigan is shooting pretty well, but the defensive rebounding has been pretty good, limiting second chances for the Wolverines.
Under 16: NICE Jeff Brooks drive off the dribble to give Penn State its first points of the half…Brooks feeds Jackson for another score. He’s looking strong here out of the half…Michigan starting to find Sims=not good…An and-one by Jeff Brooks. He’s carrying Penn State at the moment. Everyone else seems to be in a fog offensively…check that, baskets by Chris Babb and Andrew Jones starting to balance out the Penn State attack…43-41 Penn State
Under 12: Incredible save by Babb. 90% of refs call that out of bounds regardless of whether he was or not. Great play…Penn State stakes themselves to a decent lead here, need to keep the momentum steady…48-41 Penn State
Under 8: Tim Frazier comes back down the floor and creates some offense after a tough turnover. He’s been becoming visibly more comfortable lately…Brooks make a great play batting the ball around in the air. It’s been a great effort by Jeff tonight…Penn State starting to stick it to Michigan. Lions are getting pretty much whatever shot they want on offense and they’re making life miserable for UM on defense…53-44 Penn State
Under 4: The byproduct of Frazier’s aggressiveness is lots of fouls. He’s up to three now in not-so-many minutes. But I’d prefer to have the aggressiveness that the fouls…quick 5-0 run by Michigan, keyed by one Manny Harris. The transition defense has been a weak spot for Penn State tonight in an otherwise solid defensive effort…Run is up to 7-0 Michigan on a Harris slam off a Battle turnover…
Last 4: Poor shot out of the timeout. That shortcoming rears its ugly head at precisely the wrong time…Babb in the right place at the right time twice on defense...Out of another timeout, Ed draws up a decent shot for Talor, which he misses…Ed has called timeouts on all three possessions in this last segment, all three were OK, just didn’t produce anything. Give him credit for taking control though…BIG jumper by Brooks just about seals it for Penn State.