Turnovers again doom Penn State as season of road woes continues on

Penn State head coach Micah Shrewsberry chose to first acknowledge there’s a problem.

Minutes after a 67-61 loss at Maryland Monday night, Shrewsberry met with Penn State’s radio broadcast team for an immediate postmortem. His Nittany Lions fell to 11-13 on the season and 6-10 in the Big Ten, unable to pull off a third-straight win for the first time all season, and maybe more important, extended a troubling trend.

Despite Penn State’s momentum against Maryland’s five losses in its last six tries, the road proved to be too much again.

“We got to play with more poise on the road,” Shrewsberry said. “That starts with me and starts with me getting these guys ready. Maybe I need to be more poised on the sidelines.”

Penn State’s road issues

With the loss, Penn State dropped to 1-8 on the season in true road games. Only a 74-70 win at Northwestern on Jan. 5 offset a stretch that began with a bludgeoning at UMass the second game of the season and continued through losses at Michigan State, Ohio State, Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and now Maryland.

And according to Shrewsberry, the biggest culprit for the setback could be easily identified.

In a game Penn State shot a higher field goal percentage (47.2 to 46), made more 3-pointers (8 to 6), and won the rebounding battle (32-28), the Nittany Lions’ 13 turnovers proved poisonous.

“We can’t turn the ball over 13 times and have a chance to win on the road,” Shrewsberry said. “And it’s our key guys, guys that have the ball in their hands a lot. You got to play older. They have to play like an older team and that’s who you need to be if you want to win on the road. 

“We haven’t brought it on the road. We’ve brought it in stretches but we haven’t done it the entire game.”

Monday night, that exhibited itself in two distinct phases. 

While getting on the scoreboard first, Penn State quickly found itself behind 11-5 in the game’s opening minutes. Timely buckets from John Harrar and Jalen Pickett helped keep Maryland within arm’s reach and the Nittany Lions eventually ran off a 6-0 run late in the half to take a lead for the first time since the first minute.

Still, a key Sam Sessoms turnover led to an easy runout for Maryland to end the half with a 28-28 game. It’d be a precursor to a second-half that included much more of the same. 

“We gotta take care of the basketball,” Shrewsberry said. “We’re standing with the ball above our head trying to force it into the post. Everybody knows you’re passing. Everybody knows there’s a mismatch in there. If they overhelp, now find somebody else. That’s where we got to be better. 

“And maybe we need to work on it more to figure out what we need to do. Those turnovers are costly when we’re playing good defense.”

Defensive disappearance

In the second part of the equation, Penn State struggled to contain a scoring barrage from Fatts Russell and Eric Ayala to open the second half. With the two Maryland players combining for 16 of the hosts’ first 18 points in the second half, the Terrapins built a 48-39 lead. 

Offset only by three Sessoms’ baskets, Maryland’s 23-8 run into the game’s final 10 minutes left the Nittany Lions needing yet another comeback attempt.

“We didn’t play good defense the entire game, and there were stretches,” Shrewsberry said. “We started the game, we weren’t playing the right way. They got too many transition baskets. We didn’t follow our scout the way we needed to. 

“We were jumping on Donta Scott. The number one thing on the scouting report says do not jump on his shot fakes. He got us up in the air three or four times. That’s us not being totally locked in.” 

Managing to produce a strong defensive effort, keeping Maryland without hitting a shot from the floor in the game’s final six minutes, wasn’t enough for Penn State.

Instead saddled by key missed free throws and turnovers in the final minute, Penn State’s season of road frustrations continued.

“When you see that, it just tells you right away we weren’t ready to go. We weren’t locked in the scouting report, and that’s on me,” Shrewsberry said. “I need to be ready. I need to be better and get these guys better prepared when we’re traveling.”