Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1495456
A P R I L 2 0 2 3 9 OPENING SHOT SOMETHING TO CELEBRATE It would not be hyperbole to call Camren Wynter's last-second putback against Maryland on March 5 one of the bigger shots in Penn State men's basketball history. Wynter, a super senior guard who had arrived at PSU last year after spending his first four seasons at Drexel, was positioned in the right corner when senior forward Seth Lundy fired up a three-pointer from the top of the key. Lundy's shot bounced off the rim, but even with three Maryland defenders seemingly in position to rebound the ball, it fell into the hands of Wynter on the baseline under the basket. Wynter put it back just ahead of the buzzer, giving the Nittany Lions a 65-64 victory and touching off a wild celebration inside the Bryce Jordan Center. Team- mates mobbed the veteran guard at midcourt, and coach Micah Shrewsberry fought back tears while the BJC crowd cheered madly. The show of emotion was entirely understandable. Throughout the season's final month, the Nittany Li- ons seemed to be balanced precariously on the edge of NCAA Tournament qualification. Each loss would push them into the first-four-out category according to the nation's foremost bracketologists, while each win would nudge them back into the last-four-in camp. By rallying from a 12-point second-half deficit to defeat the 21st-ranked Terrapins in its regular-season finale, Penn State finally seemed to assure itself of a spot in the tournament field. That the Nittany Lions did it on Senior Day, with pregame honorees Wynter, Lundy, Myles Dread, Jalen Pickett, Andrew Funk and Michael Henn combining to score 57 points, only made it sweeter. "What the second half really boiled down to was that we kept going into the huddle and talking about a four-minute battle, one possession at a time," Shrews- berry explained. "I said, 'Don't even look at the score- board. If we're doing the right things, if we're playing the right way, the score takes care of itself. For these next four minutes, let's be the much together team.' "I thought we did that. We made plays when we needed to. [The deficit] stuck at around 10 for a while, but once we cracked it, our guys started to get some momentum and really go. I'm happy for those guys. They deserved to go out like this in their Senior Day game." Since 1939, the first year in which the NCAA Tour- nament was played, Penn State had made the field nine times heading into the 2022-23 season, with just three appearances in 30 seasons as a Big Ten member. This year, for the first time since 2011, Penn State went back, and Wynter's layup helped put them there. — Matt Herb PHOTO BY DANIEL ALTHOUSE