Penn State basketball: Three observations from Micah Shrewsberry's first victory as head coach

The evening wasn’t totally suspense free, but Penn State basketball and first-year head coach Micah Shrewsberry emerged from an opening night clash with Youngstown State holding a first victory, 75-59.

The Nittany Lions spent much of the second half with a double-digit lead, but the Penguins closed the deficit to six points with 7:12 remaining.

Sam Sessoms ensured they got no closer. He scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half, dishing out eight assists and collecting five rebounds.

His showing was complimented by efficient scoring performances from Penn State’s John Harrar and Seth Lundy. Lundy scored a game-high 23 points on 9-15 shooting, with Harrar converting on all seven of his attempts from the field on his way to 17 points.

1. Shrewsberry checked his boxes

Shrewsberry said during his postgame press conference that he enters each game with four objectives.

1. Finish the game with 10 or fewer turnovers — check.
2. Hold the opposition to under 60 points — check
3. Take quality shots — check, the Nittany Lions shot 51.7 percent.
4. Dominate effort — check, PSU held a 43-25 edge on the glass.

Certainly, it wasn’t a complete effort from the Nittany Lions against a Youngstown State team that was picked to finish 7th in the Horizon League.

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But it taught us what Shrewsberry values, and showed us that the Nittany Lions are capable of delivering, even if it isn’t perfect.

“Gritty, not pretty,” Shrewsberry said. “That’s who we want to be, and we were that tonight.”

2. Penn State’s rotation is eight men deep, for now

The Penguins stayed just close enough throughout this contest to ensure the Nittany Lions never took their foot off the gas. So, we got a look at what Penn State’s rotation might look like while under some game pressure.

The first starting lineup of Shrewsberry’s tenure consisted of Lundy, Sessoms, Harrar, Myles Dread and Jalen Pickett. Pickett led Penn State in minutes with 36. All the other starters played at least 30 minutes outside of Harrar, who played 26.

Jalanni White was the first player off the bench for Shrewsberry. He entered in the fourth minute after Harrar picked up an early foul.

White, a 6-foot-9 transfer from Canisius, played 14 minutes Wednesday night in the absence of forward Greg Lee, who has an injured foot.

White and Harrar played together at times against a small Penguins team. Penn State also went small, with neither on the court at some points.

“We wanted to mix those guys up and give them some opportunities to play together, too,” Shrewsberry said. “Right now, being shorthanded, you got to set on a rotation, but then you got to bounce it off and go with who has fouls, who doesn’t have fouls, who’s tired, who’s not.”

Shrewsberry said he thought Harrar’s 26 minutes were a perfect number for him. White picked up three fouls in the first half, which limited his availability. Shrewsberry said he would have liked to have given him more minutes. He finished with four points and four rebounds.

“I thought he did some good things,” Shrewsberry said. “He got tired in the second half, but he did some good things for us in the first half, getting on the glass, getting some extra possessions and some buckets.”

At guard, the two substitutes Shrewsberry went two were graduate transfer Jaheam Cornwall and Dallion Johnson. Each scored three points, with Cornwall playing 21 minutes and Johnson playing six.

3. Sam Sessoms can change games

When Youngstown State started to make a game of it in the second half, Sessoms was the man Penn State turned to.

He scored four straight baskets for the Nittany Lions beginning at the 10-minute mark of the second half. All of them were layups at the rim, where Sessoms arrived at will through much of this game.

Sessoms carries a certain energizer bunny quality for the Nittany Lions — that part isn’t new. His efficiency was. He shot 8-16 from the field for his 16 points, and turned the ball over only twice.

A year ago, Sessoms posted a 40.8 field goal percentage, and turned it over 1.8 times per game in 20.7 minutes. He played 33 minutes for the Nittany Lions Wednesday night.

“When you look, eight assists and two turnovers is impressive,” Shrewsberry said. “He’s making plays at the rim, but when people come and help, he’s finding guys on the perimeter. I think that’s an area of growth for him, where you see improvement from last year.

“He’s bought into what we’re trying to do.”