Penn State finds holes in defense
Nittany Lions shoot 58.3 percent from the field against Buckeyes.
Ohio State did not have its eight-game COLUMBUS — winning streak snapped by Penn State because of poor officiating. The No. 13 Buckeyes battled foul trouble to key players in both halves of the last-second 82-79 loss Thursday night at Value City Arena, but the bigger problem came on the defensive end of the basketball court.
This was the most the Buckeyes have struggled defensively in a Big Ten game this season, and it wasn’t even close. Penn State consistently got the shot it wanted, where it wanted and Ohio State was powerless to change things. In conference play, the Buckeyes were allowing teams to shoot 40.5 percent from the floor and 33.0 percent from three. Both marks were fifth-best.
Penn State buried its first five 3-pointers of the game and then was 5 for 5 in the second half. The Nittany Lions shot 58.3 percent from the field, the highest mark allowed by the Buckeyes in Big Ten play, and a staggering 11 for 14 (78.6 percent) from beyond the arc.
This is the best an opponent has shot from three against the Buckeyes since at least the start of the 1997-98 season, besting a 6-for-8 performance by Michigan State at the end of the 2001-02 season.
“We’ve got to make them more uncomfortable,” senior forward Jae’Sean Tate said. “Tonight they had a lot of in-rhythm threes. We’ve got to do a better job of making them as uncomfortable as possible instead of shooting them in a rhythm.”
Penn State entered shooting 37.4 percent from three. Shep Garner got it going with threes on the first two possessions of the night.
“We’ll look at it,” Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann said. “We’ll look at how many of those were open. They’ve not shot it that well. Now we let Shep Garner get open early and get free and that gave him some confidence.”
Garner finished 4 of 5 from three, as did Tony Carr. That was certainly a big part of Penn State’s success.
But the fact is that when the Buckeyes needed stops, they couldn’t find them until mounting theirfinal run. And when they got stops, they didn’t score, either.
■ Trailing 25-14 early, Ohio State forced four empty Penn State possession but only got a Keita Bates-Diop basket to trim the deficit to nine.
■ Tied at 30, Ohio State immediately gave up points on consecutive possessions and trailed by four.
■ Trailing 38-35, the Buck- eyes strung together four straight stops during a stretch straddling halftime but got only two points on a Kaleb Wesson basket.
■ Briefly ahead at 43-42, Ohio State gave up points on four straight possessions.
That gave Penn State a 50-43 lead with 15:11 to play. Ohio State was within 55-50 but Penn State scored on six straight possessions to push the lead to 69-57. Then, trailing 69-62, Ohio State traded baskets for seven straight possessions which meant it was still a 77-68 deficit with 2:53 to play.
s-Diop took over from there and nearly forced overtime, but theatrics wouldn’t have been necessary had Ohio State’s defense played to the level we’ve grown accus- tomed to seeing.
“You look at them and say they’re really talented,” Holtmann said. “I think Carr’s clearly a pro, he’s going to be a first-round draft pick here at some point. He’s not shot it real well. They played well, and we’ve got to figure out a way to put our guys in better position defensively and then our guys have to come out with more presence defensively than what we did.”
The win was Penn State’s highest-ranked road win since it won at No. 9 Michigan State in 2009.
Clearly, the fouls didn’t help. C.J. Jackson, Tate and Bates-Diop all finished with four, and Bates-Diop sat from the 14:41 mark of the second half until 7:42 remained and he played the remainder. Tate picked up his fourth with 5:18 to play, and Jack- son played only eight firsthalf minutes after getting two fouls.
The opening minutes of the second half were clearly as frustrating for the Buck- eyes as for their fans. Tate and Bates-Diop were both whistled for fouls in the first 20 seconds and Penn State found itself in the bonus for the final 15:11 of the game.
“I think it’s a good lesson for us,” Holtmann said. “We’ve got to play with a little more poise. I looked at some of those calls and I won’t say much about that. Penn State beat us. They were the better team tonight, but I think we’ve got to respond in those moments with a little more poise. I was obviously upset in the second half, but I was trying to be calm myself because I felt like our guys were a little too emotional. But they care; they care at a really high level. That’s one of the best things about this group.”
Now off until hosting Indiana on Tuesday, Ohio State’s players will get two days of mandated rest before getting back to practice Sunday.