Hot-Shooting Badgers Take Down Penn State, 71-52

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State men's basketball team couldn't recover from 11 first-half turnovers that gave No. 22 Wisconsin a 10-point halftime lead and a 71-52 win over the Nittany Lions Sunday night in the Bryce Jordan Center.
 
Paired with Penn State's 16 total turnovers, Wisconsin shot nearly 60 percent in the second half and had three Badgers post double figures in points. Nittany Lion junior forward Lamar Stevens and Wisconsin's Ethan Happ tied for the game-high scoring total of 22 while Penn State redshirt junior Mike Watkins had a game-best 10 rebounds. Watkins became only the 21st Nittany Lion in program history with 600 career rebounds.
 
"Turnovers were the key to the game," said Penn State associate head coach Keith Urgo, who coached the Nittany Lions Sunday in the absence of head coach Patrick Chambers, who was serving a one-game suspension. "Taking care of the basketball is something we've needed to work on this entire season. I think we had 11 turnovers in the first half and allowed 19 points off of turnovers compared to four. It's going to be hard to win any basketball games that way. But, when you have young guards who are trying to make plays that happens…You have to credit Wisconsin. Coach Gard and his staff do a tremendous job teaching one-on-one defense. They stay in front of you and make you make plays off the dribble, and, unfortunately, tonight we struggled a little bit."
 
Wisconsin (11-4, 3-1) made is first four field goals of the second half, including two 3-pointers, while Penn State (7-8, 0-4) struggled offensively, putting more distance between the Badgers and Nittany Lions, 43-23. Josh Reaves had the next two scores for Penn State with a layup and one-handed dunk. Reaves scored all six of his points in the second half and had a game-best five assists.
 
The Badgers continued their hot shooting at 80 percent (8-10) in the first 8:30 of the second period. Baskets by Stevens and Reaves started to fall, but the Nittany Lions shot 33.3 percent in the second half (10-30) and couldn't make up ground.
 
The teams went to the benches for a timeout at 15:52 knotted at 7-7 in the first half, but six straight turnovers on Nittany Lion possessions gave the ball back to the Badgers. In that stretch, Wisconsin only capitalized on the miscues with four points, but had nine points off the 11 Penn State turnovers at the break.
 
Midway through the first half a spell with four more turnovers allowed Wisconsin to build its lead to 13 points, 24-11 before Stevens had a layup and converted a three-point play. Myles Dread connected on his second 3-point basket of the half and layups by Stevens and Bolton cut the Badger lead to single digits, 31-23.
Penn State kept Wisconsin scoreless for 3:08 until Davison hit a jumper with seven seconds left to put the Badgers up 33-23 at the half.
 
Happ finished the night with eight rebounds and four assists with Brad Davison scoring 14 and Nate Reuvers 11 for Wisconsin. Davison also had seven rebounds.
 
The Nittany Lions travel to Nebraska for a 9 p.m. ET game on Thursday, Jan. 10 on ESPN2. Penn State's next home game is vs. No. 8 Michigan State returns to the Bryce Jordan Center for a 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 6 home game against Wisconsin.
 
For information or to purchase Penn State men's single-game tickets, visit  GoPSUsports.com/mbbsinglegametix or call 1-800-NITTANY, weekdays from 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
 
Keep up to date with the latest information from Coach Chambers and the Nittany Lions on Twitter by following @Coach_Chambers and @PennStateMBB, on Facebook and Instagram at @PennStateMBB.