| Freshman Jamelle Cornley had seven points and ten rebounds in Penn State's loss to Rutgers. |
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa., March 14, 2006 - The Penn State men's basketball team (15-15) saw a strong third season under Coach Ed DeChellis to end Tuesday in the Bryce Jordan Center as the Nittany Lions fell 76-71 to Rutgers (19-13) in the opening round of the National Invitation Tournament . Making their first post-season appearance in five years and ninth in the NIT, Penn State was victimized by All-Big East guard Quincy Douby who led the Scarlet Knights with 32 points hitting 11-of-19 from the field and eight-of-14 from the three-point arc. Rutgers shot 53 percent on the night contrasted by Penn State's 39 percent as the Lions struggled to score.
Penn State was led by senior Travis Parker who posted his sixth career double-double with 21 points and 12 rebounds. Junior Ben Luber matched his career high with17 points hitting a career-best five threes on nine attempts and six-of-12 from the field. The rest of the Nittany Lions struggled to put the ball in the basket combining to shoot 11-of-38 on the night.
"We didn't play them well," Parker said. "By halftime they out-rebounded us by 10, we didn't hustle, we didn't find the shooters. We had no energy and basically that's where we lost the game was at the beginning. The second half we came back and played better."
With a large and enthusiastic student section behind them, Penn State took the lead out of the gate on a Geary Claxton jumper and battled even with Rutgers through the first 10 minutes of action despite not being able to make a field goal for a six minute stretch until Luber nailed a three at the 13:11 mark to give the Lions a 9-7 lead. A Parker lay-up put Penn State up by three, 14-11, with 11:12 to play, but Rutgers went on a 17-0 run to take a 28-14 lead at the five-minute mark. Penn State went scoreless for six minutes as they couldn't get a bucket to fall until another Luber three with 4:32 to play.
Luber brought the Lions within eight with another three 30 seconds later, but two threes by Douby and a jumper from Marquis Webb, who scored 11 of his 17 points in the first half, helped Rutgers take a 12-point lead at the half, 40-28.
The second half was dominated by Douby who scored 20 of his 32 points in the final 20 minutes, including four threes. Rutgers catapulted ahead quickly on a pair of threes from Webb and when Douby drained a three at the 17:34 mark the Knights held a 19-point advantage, 49-30. Luber answered with a three, but Douby came right back with one of his own. The teams went scoreless over the next 2:30 as Penn State missed five field goal attempts. Claxton, who finished with 10 points, four boards and a career-high tying four steals, finally converted a lay-up and Mike Walker followed with a three to cut the lead to 14 at 52-38.
Penn State mounted a rally using a full-court 1-2-1-1 press, which caused turnovers and generated steals and increased the tempo of the game. Penn State equaled a season high 12 steals on the night as they extended their defense full court and played aggressive half court man-to-man. Rutgers held a 16-point lead with 11:14 to play following a Dan Waterstadt jumper when Penn State went on a 10-0 run over the next four minutes cutting the lead to six, 56-50, with 6:57 to play. Parker had five points in the run, converting twice close to the rim and hitting a free throw.
With the crowd rallying the Lions and the energy rising in the Jordan Center, Rutgers scored the next four points on a pair of Ollie Bailey free throws and a Douby finish in the lane to push the lead back to 10. Douby would score 10 straight points for Rutgers over three minutes as he single-handedly thwarted Penn State's rallies.
When a Lube jumper cut the lead to eight, Douby answered with a jumper of his own. A three-point play from Walker, who was fouled on a lay-up, was answered by a Douby three. Penn State cut the lead to six on a Parker jumper and a Jamelle Cornley dunk, and Douby hit a three to push the margin back to nine, 68-59, with two minutes to play. After a pair of Walker free throws cut the lead back to seven with 1:42 to play, Rutgers scored the next six points from the free throw line to effectively put the game out of reach with a 74-62 lead with 50 seconds to play.
"You can't be down by 20 in the second half and expect to really get back in the game," Luber said. "I think we did a good job of that. We had to stop every possession and get a basket every possession, basically. We can't dig ourselves into a hole like that and expect to win.
Four late buckets, including a three from Luber and one from Cilk McSweeney, eventually made the final 76-71 ending a season in which Penn State took a big step towards many of its goals.
"I think we've come a long way," DeChellis said. "We've really improved. The kids played pretty well down the stretch. We need to continue to get better. Hopefully being in post-season play will motivate the guys to work harder this spring and summer. To continue to work so we can improve our team and our program. We've come a long way, from not competing to competing and having a chance to win games. I'm proud of our kids and I'm proud of our staff. We've worked extremely hard and hopefully good things will continue for us on the horizon."