Penn State Basketball: Nittany Lions Shooting Woes Result in 66-46 Loss to Ohio State

Penn State’s late first half comeback made things interesting after 20 minutes but poor shooting and a balanced Ohio State attack turned a promising opportunity into a 66-46 defeat on Monday night.

The Nittany Lions took an early lead in Columbus thanks to inside scoring by Julian Moore but the shots wouldn’t fall for much of the first half as Penn State went 11-of-30 in the opening half of play. Ohio State took advantage of the cold offense going up by as many as 15 with just over 5 minutes to play in the opening stanza.

Cutting the lead to just 10 points with 2:06 to go in the half Penn State used what amounted to a brief 5-2 run in the final minutes to cut Ohio State margin to just seven heading into the break at 33-26.

The Buckeyes didn’t wait long though to push back as Ohio State raced out to a 39-28 margin with 17:21 to go in regulation. Penn State’s poor shooting performance continued by the 12:39 mark the Nittany Lions were once again down by 15.

The Nittany Lions would get as close as 13 points with 8:15 to play but Ohio State had the lead back to 20 points by the 5:02 mark effectively killing any late comeback hopes.

A three pointer by Payton Banks with 25 seconds to play made the game’s final score.

Penn State was led by Brandon Taylor’s 11 points on 5-of-16 shooting while the Nittany Lions went 4-of-25 from deep. Sophomore guard Shep Garner managed went 1-of-9 from the field and twisted his ankle early in the game. Penn State was out rebounded 41-31 in the paint and shot just 33% from the field all game.

The Nittany Lions did however outscore the Buckeyes 32-22 in paint and big men Moore and Jordan Dickerson went 4-of-6 from in close.

Keita Bates-Diop led Ohio State with 22 points going 8-of-14 from the field.

Penn State will face Michigan this Saturday at Madison Square Garden.