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| Geary Claxton set a career-high for points in the second straight game, posting 27 against Clemson. |
University Park, Pa., Nov. 29, 2005 - The Penn State basketball team saw its three game winning streak to start the year ended Tuesday night in the Bryce Jordan Center as the Nittany Lions fell to Clemson 96-88 in a Big Ten/ACC Challenge match-up. Penn State dropped to 3-1 on the year despite a career-high 27-point effort from sophomore Geary Claxton who shot 61 percent from the field (11-of-18) and added a team-high nine rebounds. It marked the second straight game in which Claxton has posted a career-high in points.
"He is awfully good," said Clemson Head Coach Oliver Purnell of Claxton who played 38 minutes in the game. "As a player, he is strong and he has a great body control. He has a real feel in the lane and as a driver and has developed his outside shot. The sky is the limit in terms of how good he can be."
Clemson remained unbeaten at 5-0 on the year and improved to 3-1 all-time against Penn State, with all wins coming in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. The Nittany Lions fell to 1-4 in Challenge games after making their first appearance in the event since 2002.
Penn State found itself down 49-30 after a first half in which the Nittany Lions committed 14 turnovers against the Tigers full-court press. Clemson hit seven three-pointers in the half, including back-to-back treys by freshmen Julius Powell, who had four on the night, and K.C. Rivers with 4:00 minutes remaining that opened up a 39-26 lead. Penn State kept it close most of the half as Claxton scored 14 points, including a pair of dunks in transition. The final six minutes of the half swung squarely in Clemson's favor, however, as the Tigers extend what was to that point a marginal lead first to 10 at the 5:30 mark and eventually to 20 at 46-26. Tigers outscored Penn State 18-8 over the final six minutes.
"Well our keys going into the game were obviously to take care of the basketball and to keep them off the offensive class, and we obviously didn't do a great job at that," Penn State Head Coach Ed DeChellis said. "The first half we turned it over to many times."
Penn State opened the second half with the small front court of Claxton, senior Travis Parker and freshman Jamelle Cornley and juniors David Jackson and Ben Luber handling the ball in the backcourt. Clemson quickly extended it's lead to 26 in the first three minutes, but Penn State fought back with back-to-back threes from Parker and Luber, the team's first from behind the arc on the night.
Penn State continued to fight its way back into the game throughout the half as they shot 55 percent from the field and made all six of their three pointers in the game in the half. Parker would score nine of his 14 points in the half and Jackson came alive hitting 4-of-5 from the field and 4-for-4 from the line to score 13 of his career-high 15 points on the game. Jackson logged 36 minutes in the game and did not commit a turnover as Penn State committed just two second half turnovers to finish with 16 for the game.
| David Jackson added 15 against the Tigers. |
"The only positive for us, I think, in terms of the second half, was that we tried and the guys didn't quit or give up," DeChellis said. "They played hard until the end, and tried to make the plays. But giving credit to Clemson, they did what they needed to do, and they played the way we've seen them play in the four games. They pushed the ball, and they pressed."
Penn State extended to a full-court press and began to foul and put the Tigers on the line late. The strategy worked as Penn State cut a 19-point Clemson lead with 2:31 remaining to six when Jackson hit a trey with 13 seconds to play. Penn State wound up scoring 58 points in the half, the most ever in a half under DeChellis, and recorded their third-straight game with 80 or more points for first time since early in the 1999-2000 season. Clemson's 96 points, 26 off turnovers, were the most ever allowed by Penn State under DeChellis and the most given up by a Penn State team since Michigan State posted a 98-73 win in East Lansing in the 2001.
Penn State takes on Texas A&M in College Station, Texas at 4:00 p.m. (ET) Saturday in their first road game of the season. That game can be heard live on the Penn State Sports Network and at www.GoPSU sports.com.