Nov. 26, 2011
PHILADELPHIA, PA.; NOV. 26, 2011 - Penn State (5-2) suffered through an 0-for-16 start to the game and never recovered falling 65-47 at Saint Joseph's (4-2) Saturday at a packed Hagan Arena in Philadelphia.
The Nittany Lions struggled shooting just 4-of-38 from the floor in the first half and trailed 33-10 at the half. St. Joe's got off to a blistering start hitting seven of its first nine from the floor to leap to a 22-0 lead before Penn State finally got on the board with 11:25 to go in the half when Tim Frazier (Houston, Texas) fed freshman Ross Travis (Chaska, Minn.) for a fast-break dunk.
Penn State's defense would hold St. Joe's to just one point over then next nine minutes of action, but the Lions could get nothing to go on the offensive end as they got just one basket over that stretch, a three from Billy Oliver (Chatham, N.J.), and trailed 23-5 with just over 4 ½ minutes to play. St. Joe's would eventually cool to 44 percent shooting in the half and 4-of-10 from three, but Penn State failed to capitalize hitting just 2-of-15 from three and 0-of-3 at the foul line.
Penn State got a bucket in the lane from Sasa Borovnjak (Belgrade, Serbia) and a three from Matt Glover (Orange, Calif.) in the half, but saw Frazier, who entered the game ranked second in the Big Ten scoring 21.0 ppg, go 0-of-12 from the floor and scoreless in the half.
The Hawks got 10 first half points from Langston Galloway and seven each from C.J. Aiken and Carl Jones. Galloway would lead the Hawks with 17 points in the game, while Aiken finished with 10.
Penn State got within 16 points late in the second half after warming up to 45 percent in the second 20 minutes, but got no closer. The Lions finished the game shooting 27 percent from the floor and were led by a career-high 12 points from Oliver who hit a career-best four threes in the game. Travis added a career-high tying 10 points, getting three dunks on the day. Frazier got a career-high 11 rebounds but struggled going 4-of-19 from the floor for eight points.
Saint Joseph's shot 41 percent in the game and won the rebounding battle 45-38.
Penn State will complete a stretch of four of five games away from the Jordan Center Wednesday when they take on Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass., as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Penn State is 4-6 all-time in Challenge Games, having won three of its last four. Penn State has won its last two road games in the Challenge, winning at Georgia Tech and at Virginia. Penn State is 5-6 all-time vs. B.C., having last faced the Eagles in an 88-65 loss at B.C. in 2001. B.C. has won four to the last five meetings with Penn State's last victory in the series coming in 1999. Penn State is 2-2 all-time at B.C.
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