Rutgers 85, Penn State 72: Eat At Arby’s.
In what was supposedly their best chance at earning another win for the remainder of the season, Penn State face-planted in epic fashion. A combination of lousy defense, poor ball security, and atrocious shooting allowed Rutgers to build an 11-0 lead, with the Nittany Lions not even getting on the scoreboard until Kayden Mingo nailed a mid-range jumper at the 13:28 mark of the half. The awfulness continued through the remainder of the half, as Rutgers took a 39-20 lead to the locker room, its largest halftime lead ever as a Big Ten conference member.
The second half saw the classic “Penn State fights back after a horrible start, but still comes up short” performance, as the Nittany Lions managed to whittle a 20-point deficit down to eight with a little under three minutes to play, but the Scarlet Knights were able to quiet the run with a few buckets of their own down the stretch to ultimately preserve a wire-to-wire victory.
Players of the Game
Josh Reed – 22 points, 6 rebounds
Kayden Mingo – 16 points, 6 assists
It was a career night scoring-wise for Reed, who helped PSU narrow the deficit some in the second half. Meanwhile, Mingo dropped half a dozen dimes to go with his 16 points.
Random Observations
- LOL, favorites?? Believe it or not, the Nittany Lions were a 4.5-point favorite coming into this game. I guess the pressure of being favored for once was too much for them to handle.
- Back to the basement – Tonight’s loss drops PSU to 2-14 in conference play, good enough to be dead last once again. Given that the upcoming schedule features the likes of Nebraska on the road, Iowa and Ohio State at home, and a return trip to Rutgers, it’s a good bet they will remain in the basement.
Up Next
Penn State (11-16, 2-14) travels to Nebraska this weekend, when they take on the ninth-ranked Cornhuskers (22-4, 11-4). If you truly hate yourself that much, the game will tip off at 2:00 PM EST Saturday (2/21) on Big Ten Network.
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