Penn State B1G Tournament run ends, falling to Purdue, 67-65
Penn State wasn’t going away. Again.
Unable to contain Purdue’s Zach Edey, while struggling to score, the combination left the Nittany Lions on the wrong side of a 20-7 run in the final of Sunday’s Big Ten Tournament in Chicago.
Just as they’d done for the four weeks prior, though, the Nittany Lions refused to quit. Fighting back from a 60-43 deficit, Penn State finished just short of its aspirations in a 67-65 loss to the No. 1-seed Boilermakers.
And with it, the Nittany Lions demonstrated for a national stage what they’d believed all along.
“We’re fighters, man,” said Jalen Pickett. “We got down, but we didn’t want it to end. We wanted to raise that trophy at the end, and we just kept fighting.”
How it happened
That spirit took shape as an unrelenting flurry of activity in the game’s final six minutes. Sparked by a Seth Lundy 3-pointer to break Purdue’s second half, 10-minute stretch of dominance, the Nittany Lions ripped off a Pickett and-one and two Andrew Funk free throws to get it back to single-digits at 60-51 with four minutes to play.
Though Edey continued to cause Penn State trouble, the Lions’ smaller lineup, attacking and boosted by a late-game injection from Evan Mahaffey with Seth Lundy sent to the bench with five fouls, kept coming. Pressing and pushing the Boilermakers, a Mahaffey dunk at the 2:38 mark, free throws for Pickett, and a Dread 3-pointer with 16 seconds to play put Purdue on edge.
“We made our way back. We started pressing a little bit, causing them problems,” said Pickett. “That’s us being us. We’re going to try and figure something out and we’re not going to give up until the end.”
Late-game comeback
The sentiment played out in full as Mahaffey forced a turnover, then quickly got the ball into the hands of Cam Wynter under the basket to make it a 66-65 game with just 6.5 seconds left on the clock. Fouling Purdue’s Fletcher Loyer out of an inbounds, the second free throw bounced out, giving Penn State a final look at a win or a tie. Calling timeout with 3.3 seconds left on the clock, the ball across midcourt, Shrewsberry had a decision to make.
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“Our team, man, they came in the huddle, and they said let’s go win it. Let’s go win it,” Shrewsberry said. “So I drew something up for them.”
Running the same action that forced Clemson to overtime earlier in the season, a cross court pass was tipped by Edey and into the hands of Myles Dread, who dished to Cam Wynter. But, unable to corral the ball, Wynter’s last look at a 3-pointer was stymied by a travel call off the bobble.
“I’m just proud of our guys. Unbelievable fight and effort. We didn’t do a great job on the offensive glass, and I think that’s what got us and did us in. They got some timely offensive rebounds,” Shrewsberry said. “Sometimes when you’re the smaller team, sometimes there’s not stuff that you can do about that. We fought and we battled. I’m proud of our guys. We’re ready for what’s next.”
What’s next for Penn State
What’s next for the Nittany Lions is the NCAA Tournament. They’ll get a Thursday matchup with 7-seed Texas A&M in the first round. Given a 10-seed by the selection committee following a late season run that included five-of-six regular season wins to secure a first-round bye in the Big Ten Tournament, then a three-win streak over Illinois, Northwestern, and Indiana to reach the conference final.
