UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; January 12, 2008 - Despite leading by as much as 16 points in the second half, the Nittany Lion basketball team (10-5; 1-2 Big Ten) had its seven-game win streak snapped Saturday in the Bryce Jordan Center with 76-73 loss to Minnesota.
A series of turnovers and cold free throw shooting down the stretch allowed Minnesota to evaporate a 16-point Penn State edge late in the second half. The Nittany Lions had an opportunity to notch a go-ahead basket with the game tied at 73 with under 30 seconds to play, but a late Geary Claxton turnover resulted in an intentional foul and Al Nolen's two free throws lifted Minnesota the victory. Minnesota improved to 12-3 and 2-1 in the conference as they handed Penn State its first loss at home on the season after an 8-0 start in the Jordan Center.
"This is a great league and a very unforgiving league," Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said. "If you relax, this is what happens to you. We are up 16 [points] with the ball and we relax and turn it over and a three-point play, turn it over another three-point play. Time out, we come back, we make a change and another turnover. It's a focus thing. You have to play every possession. You have to play every single possession. That is the way you have to play in this league."
Geary Claxton (West Haven, Conn.) and Talor Battle (Albany, N.Y.) led Penn State with 19 points each. Claxton finished the game shooting 7-of-11 from the floor and pulled down 10 rebounds for his career-best fourth-straight double-double and league leading ninth on the year. Battle knocked down a career-best three shots from beyond the arc to notch his career high scoring total. Danny Morrissey (Cleveland, Ohio) went 5-of-9 from three-point range to score 16 points. Jamelle Cornley (Columbus, Ohio) was the fourth Nittany Lion in double figures, as he finished with 11 points and seven boards.
Minnesota was led by Blake Hoffarber's 19 points and four second half threes that sparked the Gophers from a double-digit deficit. Spencer Tollackson also added 19 points and fellow senior Dan Coleman had a double-double with 10 points and 11 boards as the Gophers shot 50 percent (25-50) from the floor, made 19-of-25 at the line and logged 11 steals.
"They were playing really well and we were fortunate the ball bounced our way today," Minnesota coach Tubby Smith said. "We can easily be walking out of here saying `hey, other way around.' So, I know Penn State will win their share of basketball games. They will beat a lot of people and that's the attitude they have to take."
Penn State won the battle of the boards for the eighth straight game posting a 38-25 margin and shot 50 percent from the floor, but the Nittany Lions' struggles at the free throw line finally caught up to them. Penn State shot just 17-of-36 from the stripe for the game and hit just two of their final 12 as they let several opportunities to seize control of the game go by.
After taking a 38-35 lead to the half, Penn State used a 12-0 run early in the second half to take a 53-40 lead with 14:42 to play. Morrissey had two big threes in the spurt. Penn State extended the run to 17-2 gain a 16-point advantage after senior Brandon Hassell (Farmersville, Ohio) converted a three-point play with 12:58 to play.
A quick 6-0 Minnesota spurt in 30 seconds trimmed Penn State's lead to 10 as Hoffarber buried a three and Lawrence McKenzie converted a three-point play. Minnesota extended the run to 10-0 as they caused four turnovers with their full-court press and cut the lead to six, 58-52, on a Hoffarber lay-up with 11:05 to play.
"We turned it over four straight times," DeChellis said. "In 1:56 they cut the lead from 16 down to six on four turnovers. You can't shoot 47 percent from the free throw line. You can't shoot 17-36, 8-21 in the second half, 2-12 in the last 9 minutes."
Penn State stabilized and gained a nine-point advantage on a Claxton drive and score. Hoffarber hit the third of three-straight threes to cut the lead to five, 66-61, with 9:27 to play. The Penn State's free throw woes set in as Minnesota continued to chip away. A pair of Tollackson foul shots with 6:42 remaining gave Minnesota its first lead, 68-67, since the 4:06 mark in the first half.
Battle nailed his third three-pointer of the game to put Penn State back on top 70-68 with 5:36 to play. However, the Lions missed five straight free throws, allowing the Golden Gophers to stay close. Tollackson netted a point-blank lay-up to tie the game at 70 with 3:50 to play.
Cornley broke the tie with a reverse lay-up, but McKenzie retaliated with a go-ahead three-pointer to give Minnesota a 73-72 lead with 3:14 to play. Cornley tied the game at 73 making one of two free throws. A Damian Johson foul sent Claxton to the line with a chance to gain the lead with 1:27 to play, but the senior missed both.
Penn State forced Minnesota to use all of the shot clock on its next possession and Al Nolan missed a desperation three-pointer with 50 seconds to play handing the ball back over to Penn State. Penn State called a timeout to set its offense, but Battle failed to connect on a three-point attempt. Claxton ripped down the offensive rebound to set up another attempt from Battle. The freshman was fouled on the play, sending him to the line with 23 seconds to play. Battle missed both attempts, but Claxton pulled down another offensive rebound and Penn State colled timeout to set up a final shot.
The Lions fed Claxton in the post, but feeling the pressure of a double team he attempted to feed Cornley at the top of the key. Al Nolen stepped in front of the pass and darted down the floor with the ball where he was fouled by Cornley.
"We were trying to run something to get the ball in the post and attack the basket and at least get fouled," DeChellis said. "We had a second option and we just turned the ball over. We just didn't make the play."
Officials ruled the foul intentional sending Nolen to the line with five seconds to play. Nolen sank both free throws to give the Gophers a 75-73 lead. Minnesota retained possession and Nolen was fouled by Battle with five seconds remaining. He made one of the two free throws. A late three from Battle came up short, sealing the 76-73 victory for Minnesota.
A see-saw first half saw neither team led by more than six points in the half. Claxton paced all scorers with 11 points and six rebounds in the half. Morrissey and Battle added 10 points apiece, combining for 5-of-10 shooting from beyond the arc. Each team shot 48 percent on 12-25 shooting in the initial half of play.
After Morrissey drilled the game's first three-point attempt to give the Nittany Lions a 3-0 lead, Penn State went cold from the floor. Meanwhile, the Golden Gophers used a full-court press after each made basket in the early minutes to stifle the Penn State offensive attack.
Claxton took over on the offensive end of the court, as he scored eight of Penn State's first 13 points in the game. The Lion senior started the game 4-of-5 from the floor with six rebounds. Following a dribble drive and a right-handed lay-in on the right side of the lane, the Nittany Lions led 13-12 with 11:42 to play in the first half.
A Battle leaning lay-up with 8:58 to play ignited an 11-2 scoring spurt for Penn State. The freshman accounted for seven of the 11 points during the scoring run, as he hit all three of his shot attempts. Battle's three-pointer with 6:33 to play gave Penn State a 24-19 lead.
Despite the run covering 2:48, Minnesota came right back with five straight points. The Golden Gophers capitalized on their 2-2-1 full-court press and 2-3 zone defense to knot the game at 24 with the clock reading 4:45.
Morrissey drained back-to-back threes in the last two minutes of the half to give the Lions their largest lead of the first 20 minutes, 38-32. Minnesota had a response. Hoffarber notched a deep three-pointer from the right corner to set the score at 38-35 as the half ended.
Morrissey came out of the locker room smoking. After the two teams exchanged a pair of baskets, the junior guard eyed up his fourth three-pointer of the afternoon to kick-start a 10-0 Penn State run. Morrissey also drained a transition three-pointer from the top of the key during the spurt. In all, Penn State started the second half a perfect 5-of-5 from the field to take a 51-40 lead with 15:30 to play in the game.
Penn State will next host Wisconsin Tuesday night at 9 p.m. in the Jordan Center. That game will be televised by the Big Ten Network.
-NITTANY LIONS-