Three takeaways from Penn State basketball's tight loss to No. 20 Illinois
Penn State Nittany Lions basketball put a scare into No. 20 Illinois, but ultimately found itself once again unable to close the deal on the road, falling 60-55.
The Nittany Lions move to 12-15 and 7-12 in Big Ten with the loss.
Let’s get into the takeaways.
1. Late game scoring blues strike again
A Dallion Johnson three-pointer gave Penn State a 52-50 lead with 6:02 remaining.
The Nittany Lions did not score again until there were seven seconds on the clock.
By that time, the Illini had all but sealed Penn State’s fate, holding a six-point lead that comfortably withstood another Johnson triple that ended a game-deciding 8-0 Illinois run.
Certainly, Penn State did not play its best offense over that span. But the Nittany Lions got plenty of good looks.
None were better than a corner three missed by Myles Dread off a beautiful feed from Jalen Pickett. That would have tied the game with 41 seconds to go. Instead, the Nittany Lions were forced to foul, and never found a route back into the contest.
After an excellent first half in which Penn State shot 52.2 percent from the field and connected on five of its 11 threes, the Nittany Lions shot 34.4 percent and made only three of their 14 triples in the second half.
Micah Shrewsberry said on his postgame radio show that his team was tired, attributing the poor shooting at the end of the game to the energy Penn State was forced to expend on the defensive end of the court.
2. A game on Penn State’s terms
This was a game played in the mud, just where Penn State likes it.
The Nittany Lions played slow. They kept Illinois out of transition, where it thrives.
Illinois has only scored fewer than 60 points four times this season. Its 36 percent conversion rate from the field was its second-worst of the campaign.
It was a rock fight, and that’s what it had to be for the Nittany Lions to have a chance.
Penn State did an excellent job taking away Big Ten Player of the Year candidate Kofi Cockburn, who managed only 11 points and six boards — both well below his season averages.
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The Nittany Lions shut down three-point sharpshooter Alfonso Plummer, too. He made only one of his five field-goal attempts and finished with five points.
Defensively, Penn State gave everything it had. It just didn’t have quite enough offensive firepower to get its second road win of the season.
3. Jalen Pickett’s show
The best player on the floor Thursday night was Jalen Pickett, and that’s saying something considering the talent on Illinois’ roster.
Pickett thrives in this type of slow contest, when he can take his time and pick defenses apart with the pick-and-roll game.
That’s what he did to the Illini, finishing with a game-high 18 points on 8-16 shooting.
He grabbed five rebounds and dished out seven assists, too, tying his second-best mark of the season in that department.
