City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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In a tight game against Drexel, Payton Banks was Penn State’s scoring option down the stretch.

The sophomore wing scored eight consecutive points for his team at one stretch in the final five minutes, doing it all with a hand in his face. Banks had a game-high 20 points – 16 came after halftime.

But his scoring isn’t what pushed Penn State to a 63-57 victory on Saturday night against the Dragons at the Palestra. At least not according to him.

“It’s guys like Josh (Reaves) bringing energy and getting things like deflections,” Banks said. “To be honest, I think that’s what won us the game. It’s really hard for the (opponent) to get something going if you have Josh and Jordan (Dickerson) down low cleaning stuff up.”

With full court pressure, the Nittany Lions locked in on defense in the game’s final six minutes, going on a 20-10 run to close out the victory in front of what was a pro-Penn State crowd.

The turning point came with 5:47 left as Roman Catholic graduate Shep Garner buried a 3-pointer to cut Drexel’s lead to one point. On the Lions’ next possession, Brandon Taylor hit a layup to give the team its first lead of the game. Penn State never relinquished it.

Banks was the offensive catalyst during the spurt, and decided to take over with Drexel guarding Taylor and Garner close on the perimeter.

“It’s just being opportunistic,” Banks said. “Drexel’s defense was catered to Shep and BT, so I just had to find mine where it is, and it happened to be on those possessions. …(I saw) little holes, and I was just trying to get to the basket because a lot of our shots weren’t falling.”

The 20 points were a career high for Banks, who is scoring 11.8 points per game this season. And on a night where Garner struggled (11 points on 3-of-11 shooting) in a gym he knows well, Banks stepped up.

“He just keeps getting better,” Penn State coach Patrick Chambers said. “He’s making big shots. He defended (Drexel leading scorer) Tavon Allen all night long. There were times where I had a timeout ready to go, but sometimes your gut tells you let’s see if they can make a play.”

Drexel got off to a quick start, leading the game 9-0 and going up by as many as 17 in the first 20 minutes. But Penn State ended the first half on a 12-2 run to narrow the deficit to seven at halftime.

While it was Banks who led Penn State’s offense, Reaves, a freshman, was a main reason for the strong defense the Lions had in the second half. The 6-foot-4 guard had three steals including one after a Drexel inbound that led to a breakaway dunk.

“I took a three from the corner in the second half and it felt off. I missed it,” said Reaves, who had nine points on 4-of-11 shooting. “And I knew from then, I just needed to do as much as I could to help on the other side. That’s how we started our run in the first half. Defense, deflections and getting out on the run.”

The Dragons (1-8) were limited as big man Rodney Williams, who missed the game with an injury he sustained against South Carolina. Williams joined Major Canady and Ahmad Fields as injured Drexel players on the sidelines.

Tavon and Terrell Allen led the Dragons with 18 and 16 points, respectively. However, no other Drexel player scored more than six, and the team shot 23.1 percent in the second half while scoring 23 points.

Again, though, Drexel was in a game late and could not find a way to close it.

“This isn’t any different from the other (losses),” coach Bruiser Flint said. “Our guys need to play with some confidence when it’s time to play with some. Bottom line. It’s as simple as that. We’ve been in every game this year. Every single one. At times we need to make a couple plays.”