Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/446561
The miracle 3-pointer actually fell this time. With Penn State trailing 76-73, for- ward Brandon Taylor, struggling through another off night shooting at Indiana Tuesday, hustled toward the re- bound, turned around and shot while falling into his Nittany Lions' bench as time expired. The ball appeared to an- swer a prayer of desperation for a team off to a terrible start to the Big Ten sea- son, swishing through the net. The problem? Time expired before the ball left Tay- lor's hand. After a short official review, the shot was called off, the Hoosiers were awarded the 3-point win and the Nit- tany Lions found themselves continuing a losing streak now extending to four games. "It was late. I could see it was late," head coach Patrick Chambers said. "I saw the red lights go off." The problems started early for the Lions, who jumped out to a 4-0 lead, but quickly hit just 2-of-9 shots en route to a 17-6 deficit after Indiana's Robert Johnson's layup at the 13-minute mark in the first half. Responding with an 11-0 run of their own, the Nittany Lions needed just three minutes before a Geno Thorpe 3-pointer tied it at 17-17. The progress wouldn't last, though. Trading baskets to a 27-26 lead at the 4- minute media timeout, a pair of turnovers and a hot Indiana offense – the leader in Big Ten scoring – resulted in a 39-34 deficit for PSU at the half. Trailing again at hal9ime, a common theme through every game against con- ference opponents, the Nittany Lions managed to stay within arm's reach de- spite an early Indiana 3-ball that pushed the Hoosiers' lead to eight points out of the half. Eventually, layups from Taylor and layup off a runout at the 14:07 mark led to big man Jordan Dickerson's offen- sive rebound and putback to tie it at 51-51. Getting over the hump proved to be impossible again for the Lions. Fouling three times on the same Indiana posses- sion, the Lions went miss, miss, miss, turnover, miss before a Shep Garner runner in the lane stopped the bleeding at 58-51. Extending the Hoosiers' lead to 69-57 on a Troy Williams dunk, they built a lead big enough to withstand their drought of just seven more points in the game's final 5 minutes, 24 sec- onds. "Indiana might be young, but they're really talented," Chambers said. "That's what's scary about their group because on any given night, Yogi [Ferrell] can get it going, [James] Blackmon can get it going and tonight Robert Johnson got it going." Though a Thorpe and-1 pulled the Nittany Lions to 73-69, Collin Hart- man's dagger 3-pointer off a Ferrell as- sist provided a more comfortable 76-69 margin for the Hoosiers. Connecting on just 4-of-24 3-point attempts on the evening, Penn State languished again shooting the ball from deep. Against conference competition, the Lions have hit only 21-of-83 shots from beyond the arc. Facing an Indiana team playing with- out Hanner Mosquera-Perea, a junior forward who started all 16 games for the Hoosiers this season, the Nittany Lions managed to shoot 47 percent from the floor for the game in spite of the 3-point struggles. In fact, for the game the Lions hit 27-of-42 shots from the floor (65 percent). "We're in a little bit of a shooting slump," said Chambers. "We're not making the shots we were making in the non-conference. We're missing shots in the paint. We're not getting ourselves to the free throw line like we were. Every- body's good in this league. Everybody is talented. There's no hiding anybody anymore. You can only mask so much, but I'm confident we're a good team." In the absence of senior guard John Johnson, suspended due to "conduct inconsistent with team standards and values," Chambers hoped to get more production from his bench. Though Thorpe came through with 10 points and the Lions saw all five starters in double-figures, Chambers said star senior guard D.J. Newbill, who finished with 12 points, needs more help. "I just feel like we need production from those guys. We can't put pressure every night on D.J. Newbill to perform. Shep Garner is still a freshman," he said. "We're going to need Payton Banks and we're going to need Geno Thorpe. Those guys stepped up in the nonconference and they're going to need to step up now." With the loss, the Lions fall to 12-5 for the season heading into Saturday's re- turn to the Bryce Jordan Center when they take on Purdue (10-7 overall, 2-2 Big Ten). Tip is at 1 p.m. on ESPNU. Senior guard John Johnson has been suspended from the Penn State men's basketball team because of conduct in- consistent with program standards and values, head coach Patrick Chambers an- nounced Monday. Johnson will not par- ticipate in team activities during the suspension. It is unclear when he'll re- turn to the team. "Right now I don't have a timetable," Chambers said at his press conference. "I know this is going to disappoint a lot of you guys, but that's all I can really give you right now. That's all the information I can provide. So, if you can respect that, that would be great. That's as much in- formation as I can give." N A T E B A U E R | N B A U E R @ B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M J A N U A R Y 1 4 , 2 0 1 5 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 7 Hoosier heartbreak Penn State falls seconds short at Indiana, remains winless in Big Ten M E N ' S B A S K E T B A L L Guard John Johnson suspended from team