March 5, 2015
By Matt Allibone, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - It may have been the last home game of his college career, but Ross Travis didn't waste any time feeling nostalgic.
For the senior forward, Wednesday night's game against Ohio State was an opportunity to show just how effective he could be. In his first start since Feb. 4 against Maryland, Travis gave perhaps his best performance of the season, scoring 14 points and grabbing eight rebounds in 29 minutes in an eventual 77-67 setback to the 23rd-ranked Buckeyes.
"Ross is playing great basketball the last couple of weeks and down the stretch," head coach Patrick Chambers said. "He's been dialed in, doing everything he can for us and it's great to see."
Travis has always been a player defined by his effort, and Wednesday was no different. But while the 6-foot-7 forward's game has usually been defined by defense and rebounding, he went to great lengths to assert himself on offense against the Buckeyes.
In the game's first two minutes alone, Travis scored two of the Lions first three baskets in what turned out to just be a taste of what was to come for Penn State's third-leading rebounder of all time.
After the Buckeyes took an early 15-8 lead, the Lions went on a 21-5 run that lasted nearly nine minutes and resulted in a 29-20 Penn State lead with 3:21 remaining. In that frame, Travis went 3-of-4 from the field and scored seven points before finishing the first half with 12 points and three rebounds as Penn State led 30-29.
Not only did he match his highest point total of the season and finish just two rebounds away from a double-double, Travis played with a ferocity that was unique even for him. Clearly exhausted afterwards, the forward said he was merely trying to do his job.
"The same thing that inspires me everyday and every game," Travis said. "Playing for my teammates, playing for certain individuals. Just the same thing."
Of course, Travis wasn't the only senior honored prior to the contest. Former walk-ons Kevin Montminy and Alan Wisniewski started for the first time all season in their last game in the BJC.
And then of course, there was D.J. Newbill, who led the Nittany Lions in scoring with 17 points while dishing out five assists and grabbing four rebounds. It was the 6-foot-4 guard's 29th double-digit scoring effort in 30 games this season.
Not only that, but the 17 points also helped the Philadelphia native pass the 2,000 mark for his career, making him the 10th active Division I player to have accomplished the feat. When asked where he ranked Newbill against the greatest players in Penn State history, Chambers put him near the top.
"He's got to be top five," Chambers said. "The only thing that might prevent him is wins. You feel for him. The guy took a chance on us and he's done his job and I need to do mine. I need to do a better job of helping him out these last couple games here to help him finish strong."
After playing the 23rd best team in the nation evenly for the first 30 minutes, the Lions came out on fire to start the second, opening the half with a 8-0 run that gave them a 38-29 lead and all the momentum.
At that moment, Ohio State freshman guard D'Angelo Russell began to show why he's considered a future NBA lottery pick. Having gone just 3-of-9 from the field in the first half, the Big Ten's second leading scorer went 5-of-7 the rest of the way and finished the night with 28 points, six rebounds and three steals.
Although the Lions kept it close for a while and trailed by eight with 10 minutes to go, Ohio State's hot shooting proved to be too much to stop. In the second half alone, the Buckeyes shot 52 percent from the field and 56 percent from three.
"I thought we played really well for 30 minutes," Chambers said. "We played really, really well. And then [D'Angelo] took over the game, that was the difference. And then everybody got hot, it seemed we couldn't get a stop for a while there, everybody made a shot. It was contagious."
Though the loss stings like always, Chambers was still able to be proud of the effort his seniors gave. From the star in Newbill to the grinder in Travis and finally to two of the hardest workers in Montminy and Wisniewski, everyone was deserving of the accolades they received.
"I thought Ross did some good things," Chambers said. "It was nice to see Kevin and Wis, I thought they played to a stalemate before I took them out which was just typical for those guys. Kevin Montminy played [former first team All-American] Trey Burke at Michigan. Alan Wisniewski was in critical games his last four years. It didn't surprise me at all that we didn't really miss a beat with those guys in the game."