| Ben Luber had two steals toearn a tie 10th all-time on the PSU career steals chart. |
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UNIVERSITY PARK, PA., Feb. 3, 2007 ?C Penn State (10-11; 1-7 Big Ten) dropped its seventh-straight game Saturday as Purdue??s Carl Landry posted 26 points and nine rebounds to lead the Boilermakers (15-8; 4-5 Big Ten) to a 69-59 victory in front of 9,151 fans in the Bryce Jordan Center.
Geary Claxton (West Haven, Conn.) paced the Nittany Lions with 14 points and 12 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season. Ben Luber (Richboro, Pa.) added a season-high 14 points, five assists and two steals which tied him for 10th all-time on the PSU career steals chart while Jamelle Cornley (Columbus, Ohio) notched 13 points and three boards.
David Teague added 12, Chris Lutz 11 and Chris Kramer 10 and four steals for Purdue.
??I thought our guys were ready to play,?? Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said. ??I thought we had really good focus in practice the last couple of days. We tried to get our guards more active and they were more active ?C got some steals. We just didn??t hammer the guy inside (Landry) at all and we worked pretty hard on that for two days. We just gave him too many easy baskets.??
Purdue shot 52 percent (24-46) from the floor and won the rebounding battle 28-23 while Penn State committed 18 turnovers, its most in Big Ten play this season, and shot 42 percent (19-45). The Nittany Lions played a more aggressive zone defense that produced a season-high 10 steals and 20 points off turnovers, but shot 33 percent (4-12) from three, including 0-of-3 from leading three-point shooter Danny Morrissey who was shut out from the arc for the first time in 29 games. Penn State??s guards contributed heavily in the first 10 minutes of the game playing with energy after a week off. Luber scored Penn State??s first seven points of the half converting a pair of lay-ups and a three-pointer. He would finish with nine in the half. The Lions got solid perimeter defense, including six early steals, some nifty passing and 11 of their first 19 points from the guards.
The teams played within a close margin in the half with 10 lead changes and five ties and neither team holding more than a four-point lead until the final two minutes. Penn State was hot early shooting 56 percent over the first nine minutes to take as much as a four-point lead, 17-13, on a Cornley field goal with 9:24 to play.
However, Penn State cooled off as the half wore on, eventually shooting just 38 percent (8-21) for the first 20 minutes, and Purdue used the strong play of Landry to rest control. The 6-9 forward had 16 points in the half, consistently getting deep post position against the Penn State 2-3 zone, and helped the Boilermakers to a 19-8 advantage on the boards.
The close shots helped Purdue shoot 50 percent (12-24) in the half. With Penn State up 21-20 following a pair of Cornley free throws with 5:21 to play, Purdue went on a 10-4 run over the final five minutes to take a 30-25 lead into the locker room. Landry had two buckets and Chris Kramer had a three-pointer during the spurt. Penn State had just one field goal over the final five minutes and got just three points and one rebound from Claxton who played 11 first half minutes.
??He (Claxton) was really tired yesterday and then he got two fouls,?? DeChellis said. ??We were thinking about going back to him but we were only down five at the half, and I thought we could overcome that and he had some rest. We just thought we could hang in there and be okay. It turns out in the second half there was a critical time when we were down six and they end up getting a five point play??really critical for us.??
Penn State used an early 6-2 run to close to 32-31 on a Claxton put-back with 15:26 to play in the second half and again got within one, 35-34, on a Luber three with 13:50 to play, but Purdue went on an 7-0 run over the next 45 seconds. The run started with a Landry lay-up. Luber then turned the ball over on the other end and Marcus Green took it down for a dunk for Purdue. Milos Bogetic was called for a push while running down the floor away from the play and Purdue got the ball back. Teague promptly buried a three to give the Boilermakers a 42-34 lead.
Purdue kept the lead above six the rest of the way eventually pushing it to 10, 56-46, with 7:26 to play after back-to-back threes from Lutz.
Penn State cut it back to six, 58-52, with 4:48 to play following a pair of Claxton free throws and had a chance to cut the margin lower, but Kramer stole the ball from Cornley and drew an intentional foul call on Luber on the other end. Kramer made both free throws and Landry got a dunk in the ensuing possession and the lead was back to 10, 62-52, with 3:25 to play.
Penn State never threatened again as Purdue made 7-of-8 at the line down the stretch.
Penn State returns to action in the Bryce Jordan Center on Wednesday when they take on No. 2 ranked Wisconsin in an 8:00 p.m. tip. The game will be televised by ESPN Regional and broadcast on the Penn State Sports Network.