| Sophomore Mike Walker made several big threes on his way to 13 points Saturday at Michigan State. |
EAST LANSING, Mi.; January 28, 2006 ?C The Penn State basketball team (10-8; 2-5 Big Ten) played one of its best games of the season and nearly pulled off a big upset before falling 69-60 at No. 12 Michigan State (16-5; 4-3 Big Ten) Saturday. The Nittany Lions, playing their third straight game against a ranked opponent and second in a row on the road, nearly gave senior Travis Parker a big present on his 22nd birthday as the Lions led at halftime and 58-57 as late as 5:31 left in the game, but were denied by huge second halves from Michigan State??s Shannon Brown and Drew Neitzel.
A back-and-forth second half saw Penn State extend its lead to seven in the first minute and take the lead on five other occasions as the teams battled within a five-point margin until the final minute. The Spartans, playing without second-leading scorer Paul Davis, needed to shoot every bit of a blistering 60.9 percent in the second half to hold of the Lions as Brown scored 23 of his game-high 29 points and Neitzel posted 16 of his 19 in the second half. The two combined for 39 of the Spartans 42 second half points.
Penn State won the rebounding battle 36-30 and was led by Geary Claxton and the hot shooting of Mike Walker. Claxton posted another strong conference outing with 19 points and 13 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season. Walker contributed 13 points off the bench hiting three of seven from three-point range. Freshman Milos Bogetic also shined, scoring 10 points against the Spartans and going 2-for-2 from three-point range while junior guard Ben Luber scored 10 including some big second half buckets.
Penn State held a 32-27 halftime lead after strong first halves from Claxton and Walker, who was huge off the bench with 10 points in the first stanza. At the 11 minute mark of the first half, Penn State head coach Ed DeChellis inserted Bogetic and the sharpshooter Walker and the duo keyed a run for the Lions. Walker hit the first shot he took, a three-pointer that put Penn State up 16-15. A Ben Luber steal led to a Walker lay-up, and those quick five points boosted the Lions from a two point deficit to a three point lead in under a minute.
The first of Bogetic??s big shots was a wide open three-point shot from the top of the key that gave Penn State a 23-17 lead with seven minutes remaining in the first half. Walker then hit a jumper from the left wing and knocked in another three pointer later to stretch Penn State??s lead to as many as six.
In the second half, Penn State extended the lead to seven on a Claxton bucket and then Brown came alive eventually hitting four for eight from behind the arc and bringing the crowd to its feet with a transition dunk. Neitzel was five of eight from behind the three-point line as the teams battled through 10 lead changes. Bogetic made his second three-pointer to put the Lions ahead by a point, 46-45, with 10 minutes to play. A Walker three pointer with five minutes remaining put the Lions up 58-57, but the Spartans ended the game on a 12-2 run to pull away in the final two minutes.
Penn State returns to the Bryce Jordan Center on Wednesday for an 8:00 p.m. match-up with Michigan which defefeated No. 21 Wisconsin, 85-76, on Saturday.