Micah Shrewsberry shares key to Penn State winning tight games

Micah Shrewsberry and Penn State Nittany Lions couldn’t have ended their regular season schedule in grander fashion.

The program picked up a thrilling 65-64 win against No. 21 Maryland to give the NCAA Tournament powers something to think about. The Nittany Lions came back from a 16-point deficit, taking a one-point lead with 43 seconds left. After the Terrapins responded with a layup of their own, the home team took the lead at the buzzer with a floater from Camren Wynter off a broken play.

Speaking with the media afterwards, Shrewsberry explained the key to the Nittany Lions’ newfound petulance for winning close games.

“Just playing together a little bit more, longer in the season,” explained Shrewsberry. “We’re adjusting to how people are guarding us. Now late in the game, they can do things on the fly. They can talk to each other on the fly late in the game. … When we can just go to a simple action that we’ve been running the whole second half, now it’s just communication. … It’s all simple. It’s all communication. It’s all fast, and we can just play, without allowing other people to set things up. So they know what they’re looking for, they know what they’re trying to get to. I think that’s helped us late game, of really executing.”

Penn State may be the hottest team in the Big Ten entering conference tournament week, and Micah Shrewsberry knows a good performance could put the Nittany Lions in the NCAA Tournament. They’re peaking at the right time, and it’ll be interesting to see how they perform this week.

Micah Shrewsberry explains game-winning play vs. Maryland

Following the win, Micah Shrewsberry broke down what happened in the final seconds inside Bryce Jordan Center. Although they were running action to get Jalen Pickett or Seth Lundy a look, he said it was by design that Wynter was where he was. From there, he praised the grad student for having the discipline to stay in the right place so he could be there at the right time.

“We had gone to that a couple of times in the second half. It was a matter of communicating the pick if he wanted to set this screen or not. Who’s guarding him? I think Hakim (Hart) started on Pickett in the backcourt. We wanted to get him off of him…So (Andrew) Funk sets it and clears him,” Shrewsberry started. “As we’re doing this and drawing this up, Cam is cutting through. And I told him to just stop kind of in the dunker because we’ve already got three guys spaced.”

“If Cam goes out there, it’s easier for them to rotate once they double team. Pickett goes, gets stopped, now he turns back, and (Seth Lundy) gets to his shot,” said Shrewsberry. “So hats off to (Cam) for sticking it out and staying around there. Going to glass, and helping us by making a big-time play. A big time to decision to be at the right spot at the right time.”

Improving their field goal percentage from 36% to 58.6% in the second half worked wonders for Penn State’s chances. From there, Wynter, who completed 3-5 shots on the day for six points, got to be the hero for the second time in as many games by laying in the ball in at the buzzer. His efforts on Sunday gave the Nittany Lions their fifth win in their last six games and set their final record at 19-12.

This was an emphatic way for Wynter to send his team into the Big Ten Tournament. They’ll need to keep their overall momentum going, though, to ensure they remain in the NCAA Tournament field.

On3’s Sam Gillenwater contributed to this article.