City of Basketball Love

Vincent Lungaro (@VinceLungaro)
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The growing theme of Penn State’s season heading into its matchup with Ohio State was the Nittany Lions’ growing inability to come out of closely contested games with a win.

Tuesday night’s game was more of the same, Penn State held a late lead on the Buckeyes, but came up short in the waning moments and the result was a fourth straight loss.

Tony Carr hit a go-ahead three with 9.8 seconds to play to put the Nittany Lions ahead by one, before Jae’Sean Tate stormed the other way and nailed a shot in off the glass to give the Buckeyes the 71-70 win.

If Penn State wants to reach its goals laid out by Chambers of competing for Big Ten Championships and NCAA Tournament berths down the road, then losses like the one to Ohio State (17-13, 7-10 Big Ten) must start to turn into wins.

Including the one-point defeat on Tuesday, Penn State has now lost 11 games this season by 10 points or fewer.

Just last week, the Nittany Lions (14-16, 6-11)  held an early lead in overtime against then-No. 14 Purdue, only to falter in the final few minutes and lose 74-70.

Shep Garner said he believes the Nittany Lions’ misfortunes in the closing moments of tight losses has often come down to other players making big plays.

“Overall I think we’re playing great, but I think teams make certain plays and we don’t, that’s what it comes down to,” he said.

“[Jae’Sean] Tate made a tough shot tonight, and he's known for making those tough shots,” Garner added. “I thought we played good defense; he just made a tough shot.”

The types of plays Garner elaborated on that the Nittany Lions must improve upon and learn from involve defending and rebounding.

When Penn State has needed a stop or rebound is up for grabs, too often this season the opponents have scored a bucket like Tate’s or collected the loose ball, putting the Nittany Lions on the wrong end of close finishes.

“In the Big Ten, there is a lot of possession basketball,” Garner said. “The more stops you get, the better chance you get at winning those close games. Sot that’s what it's going to come down to getting stops.”

The current roster is filled with more talent than perhaps in program history and the above mentioned goals are still possible in future seasons.

But, Penn State head coach Pat Chambers is well aware the youth-laden Nittany Lions have to start flipping the script in final moments of games if those goals are to become reality. and he’s confident they’re capable of doing so.

“When you invest in something the way they have, especially a guy like Shep, a junior, and you work, they’re all working extremely hard, it hurts and that’s a good thing,” Chambers said.

“That’s a good thing for this program. That’s a good thing for the fans out there that these guys care this much. You know what they’re not doing? They’re not planning a spring break, I can tell you that. We have winners in that locker room who are invested, who want to get better, and they want to see this thing turn around.”

One of the few bright spots for the Nittany Lions in the defeat to the Buckeyes was the performance of Garner.

Since the non-conference portion of Penn State’s schedule ended on Dec. 21, things haven’t gone so smoothly for the junior guard.

One of the lone veterans on the roster who see’s significant minutes, Garner’s performances in Big Ten play have largely been up and down. Meanwhile freshmen Tony Carr, Lamar Stevens and Mike Watkins seem to dominate headlines night in and night out.

Garner had scored 15 or more points just three times in conference play leading into Tuesday night’s meeting with Ohio State.

In his last fives games, Garner shot just 29.6 percent from the floor, including a forgettable 5-for-22 stretch against Maryland, Illinois and Nebraska.

While Penn State dropped Tuesday’s game, Garner offered hope that he is turning things around as the Nittany Lions gear up for the conclusion of their regular season and head toward the Big Ten tournament next week.

Right from the beginning it was apparent Garner was eager to put his recent woes behind him, knocking down his first two attempts from three.

In a first half that never saw the Nittany Lions hold a lead, Garner kept his team in the game with hot shooting and a willingness to get to the paint, something Chambers had said he wanted to see more of from the Roman Catholic alumnus.

“He looked like a different kid tonight,” Chambers said. “He looked like he had some energy in his feet, he was ready to play right away, play with confidence. I think trying to get him going early was really good. Tony [Carr] did a lot of that. He saw the ball go through the basket a few times.”

Garner fed off that hot start to continue to pace the Nittany Lions in the second half.

Two more 3-pointers from Garner sparked a 12-1 run to open the second frame and it seemed as though Penn State was well on its way to snapping their three game skid.

Ultimately, the Buckeyes won via the Tate bucket in the game’s final moments, but Garner’s 20-point performance is a good sign for a Penn State team looking to get a hold of any sort of momentum it can.

Penn State has now lost four straight games and nine of their past 12.

If the last few weeks don’t produce a significant number of wins, it can only be a positive for the Nittany Lions to see Garner going again, to at the very least build off it going into next season.

A season where they’ll undoubtedly need him at his best if they’re to make a run at the NCAA Tournament.

“Even though he shot 14 three’s, a few deeps ones, they all looked good,” Chambers said. “He shot them with confidence and we need that. That’s the type of kid we need down on the road at Iowa and down in the Big Ten tournament.”