Shrewsberry: ‘We continue to fight’
Nittany Lions move onto Big Ten quarters
CHICAGO — Every game in the Big Ten tournament coming into Penn State men’s basketball’s secondround matchup resulted in the lower seed winning.
The 10th-seeded Nittany Lions weren’t going to be the team to end that trend. It was a roller coaster of a game, but Penn State was able to pull off a 79-76 win against seventh-seeded Illinois on Thursday at the United Center.
“When the game’s on the line and things aren’t going well, like this group is really, really tough at the end of the day,” Penn State coach Micah Shrewsberry said. “Really tough. We just continue to fight. We continue to fight. We continue to fight until the tide starts turning our way.”
There were 11 lead changes in the second half and the two teams tied six separate times. The largest lead for the Illini was six points with 14:18 remaining in the game.
The momentum started to shift after that. Illinois’ Dain Dainja was given a technical foul and Andrew Funk sank the corresponding free throws. He then hit a 3pointer and it was a 1-point game with 13:26 to go.
“It almost feels like we get a little bit of a break with the technical foul and shooting two free throws,” Funk said. “It’s like we said, again, just using that momentum. We know we’ve played in a lot of tight games as well is the other thing. So trusting the guys around you to make plays and make shots.”
No team would have more than a 2-point lead for the next 7-minute stretch.
That is until Penn State went on a 9-1 run to make it 64-57 with 4:44 to go. Jalen Pickett had six of those points after scoring only five before that stretch.
Funk scored his sixth 3pointer of the game to give the Nittany Lions the largest lead (72-60) with 1:51 to go. Illinois would tighten that to just a 3-point advantage with 0.1 seconds left. It was too little too late and the Nittany Lions advanced to the quarterfinals
for the second consecutive year.
Funk led with 20 points on 6- of- 9 shooting. Camren Wynter, Seth Lundy and Pickett also scored in double figures adding 18, 17 and 12, respectively.
“They made shots,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “They do a great job of guard-on-guard screening and getting a matchup that they like, and then Pickett just literally takes the ball and pounds nails until he gets it where he wants.”
The Nittany Lions controlled a majority of the first half. They went 6 of 6 from the field to gain a 10-point lead with 8:22 until halftime. Pickett hit his first shot of the game shortly after but then Penn State wouldn’t score again for another 5:04.
Penn State went into the locker room with a 31-30 advantage.
Pickett was held to just 1 of 3 shooting in the first half.
This comes after his 41-point performance the last time the two teams met on Feb. 14.
“I felt like I got good looks in the first half,” Pickett said. “They just didn’t drop. Second half I felt a little more comfortable getting to my spots and rising up and making shots. Credit to my teammates. We had the lead at the end of the first half, and they made a lot of big shots.”
Key stat
If it weren’t for high-percentage shooting it would’ve been a lot different for Penn State. The team connected on 51.8% (29 of 56) of its shots overall and 38.1% (8 of 21) from 3-point range.
Quotable
Penn State is 3-0 in March. “We wanted to be playing our best basketball in March, and I think we’re doing that,” Shrewsberry said. “We wanted to peak right now. This is where we’re peaking as a team.”
Up next
The Nittany Lions advance to play second-seeded Northwestern in a quarterfinal Friday. Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. Penn State won, 6885, in overtime in their only regular- season matchup with the Wildcats on March 1.