City of Basketball Love

Marley Paul (@MarleyPaull22)
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NEW YORK — Pat Chambers scheduled visits to two historic arenas for his Penn State team this season. First up was a trip to the Palestra, where the Nittany Lions (11-11, 2-7 Big Ten) staged a late comeback in the final five minutes to rally for a win against Drexel in Philadelphia. 

That rally came on Saturday, but was too little too late as Penn State slid to .500 on the season with a 79-72 loss to Michigan (17-5, 7-2 Big Ten) at Madison Square Garden in the inaugural Big Ten Super Saturday, which features a hoops and hockey doubleheader at the arena. 

Shep Garner was a game-time decision, hurting his ankle last Monday on the opening possession at Ohio State. But the bright lights were too much to pass on as the Chester native took the court and paced his team with 22 points, six rebounds and four assists. 

"I was proud of his toughness and of his grit,” Chambers said of Garner, who played a team-high 37 minutes. “His foot looks banged up and battered. He got here early and I was really proud of him to show his teammates he’s going to gut it out.

Brandon Taylor notched a double-double, dropping 24 points and picking up 10 rebounds.

Facing a 17-point deficit in the second half, Taylor and Garner, the team’s leading scorers, pieced together a 7-0 run in a 90-second span to cut Michigan’s lead to 60-50 with 7:43 left to play. 

Garner was responsible for six more points — another 3 from NBA distance followed by a drive-and-kick to Davis Zemgulis in the left corner — bringing the Nittany Lions within five with 4:48 on the clock. 

"It’s confidence, and I thought we did a nice job of getting him some nice one-two step shots, instead of him coming off a ball screen in a non-rhythm shot,” Chambers added of his second-year guard. “The other guys need to get him shots instead of Shep trying to get shots of ball screens.”

Derrick Walton Jr. had a balanced performance, posting a 13-point, 10-rebound and seven-assist stat line for the Wolverines. Zak Irving poured in a team-high 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting.

Michigan responded to Zemgulis' 3 with two quick baskets — the first simply by pushing the pace after the made bucket. Then, Walton Jr. rebounded a missed 3 from Banks and kicked it ahead to Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman, who stretched the lead back up to nine with 4:10 left. 

"The fast break points killed us,” Chambers said after his team allowed 12 fast break points, while only scoring five quick ones for themselves. "I thought we did a wonderful job in the halfcourt, made some adjustments from the last game and I thought we made them take tough shots. They shot tough twos and contested three, but give them credit."

A slow start out the gate saw Michigan score seven unanswered before Payton Banks drained a three courtesy of a Taylor feed from the post.

Similar to his later 6-0 spark, Garner found a 3 in transition with 13:15 left in the half before finding Isaiah Washington on a pass from penetration. Washington was fouled behind the arc and converted on all three free throws to tie things at 13.

Nearly 30 seconds of solid defense almost shut Michigan out on the final possession of the half, but Irving broke free to the left corner and sank a buzzer-beating trey to send Michigan into the half up double digits, 38-26. It wasn't exactly coach John Beilein drew up in the huddle he conceded. 

“We were going for a lob to the rim for Aubrey [Dawkins].  He gave up on it because they had the big guy up that we couldn’t throw over," he said. "We put Duncan [Robinson] in to see if he could get a shot, but he made a really good baseline drive and found Zak and he made a big shot."

The last time the Nittany Lions played on 34th and 8th was in 2009, edging Baylor 69-63 to claim the NIT championship and their fifth consecutive on the legendary court. They are now 10-7 all-time at Madison Square Garden. 

Penn State center Jordan Dickerson finished his three-year stint with Brooklyn powerhouse Abraham Lincoln High School at the Garden, losing in the PSAL boys AA championship game. Now played across town at the Barclays Center, the city title game was hosted by the Garden from 1990-2013.

Despite the unfavorable final box score, a patient Chambers is still upbeat about the direction in which his team and fan base is trending for the seasons to come down the road.

“Penn State wants great basketball and that’s exciting to me and the future of this program. This was a great stage for us to be on and it was very exciting for our guys, our staff, and our program,” he said. “We are going to be on this stage again and I look forward to that day because that’s the vision we have.”