City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)

Penn State ended its two-game skid with a 62-58 victory against Bucknell on Saturday afternoon at the Bryce Jordan Center.

Payton Banks hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 23 seconds left for the Nittany Lions (3-2), who finished the game on a 13-1 run.

At first…
The game was back-and-forth in the first half, as neither side even opened a lead larger than five points. The Lions led by one when they went into the locker room, up 31-30. Isaiah Washington gave Penn State its biggest advantage when he hit a 3-pointer with a minute left.

Turning point…
Penn State was trailing by eight with just more than five minutes remaining when coach Patrick Chambers called a timeout. The Lions scored on both of their next two possessions to cut that lead in half and went on to outscore the Bison (3-3) by 12 points over the last five minutes.

Shining stars…
Banks’ late triple broke a 58-58 tie, and the redshirt sophomore ended with nine points on 3-of-8 shooting. Brandon Taylor had a team-high 19 points and added 11 rebounds for Penn State. Taylor was the only Penn State player in double digits, but Shep Garner and Jordan Dickerson combined for 17.

For Bucknell, Chris Hass, a preseason All-Patriot League selection, had 18 points, but needed 17 shots to get there. Zach Thomas had 14 points for the Bison, and Berks Catholic grad Nana Foulland had eight points and nine rebounds.

Noteworthy numbers…
Bucknell shot just 29.8 percent from the field. This comes after the Lions allowed Radford to shoot 56.4 percent from the floor in a 12-point loss on Tuesday. …Penn State shot 39.6 percent from the field, and struggled from beyond the arc, hitting just five of its 18 3-pointers. …The win snapped a two-game losing streak for Penn State in which the team was outscored by 38 points.

Up next...
Penn State (3-2) @ Boston College (12/2, 7:15 p.m.)
Bucknell (3-3) vs. Columbia (12/, 7 p.m.)