Penn State’s postseason run was short-lived.
The Nittany Lions fell to Northwestern on Tuesday night in the opening round of the Big Ten tournament in Chicago by a 76-66 final score, dropping to 12-20 on the year.
What started as a back-and-forth affair began tilting toward the Wildcats in the second half, ending head coach Mike Rhoades’ third season at Penn State in disappointing fashion.
“It’s really hard when you have a really tough January and February in the Big Ten, because it’s unforgiving,” Rhoades said after the game. “It could wreck you … you just try your hardest to stack days, and you have tough results and and you know, you got to use all that as great fuel for the offseason.”
How it happened
Penn State switched up its starting five, giving freshman Mason Blackwood his first start in place of Freddie Dilione V. Before the first media timeout, Dilione had already subbed in for Dom Stewart.
“I thought the last three weeks (Blackwood has) been playing harder than others, physicality and just the way he competes,” Rhoades said. “I thought his defense was good today. We need a little more offense out of him, but thought he did some good things, proud of him.”
Northwestern pulled ahead early, but Ivan Jurić — sporting a fresh haircut — kept the Nittany Lions competitive with 10 of the team’s first 12 points.
After Jurić tied up the score, Nick Martinelli — the Wildcats’ leading scorer — recorded six unanswered points to give them an 18-12 lead, their largest to that point.
Just when Northwestern seemed to be pulling away, Penn State went on a 9-3 run, including back-to-back scores from Dilione to make it a 21-21 contest.
The Nittany Lions dialed up the intensity defensively, which translated to opportunities on the other end of the court. Melih Tunca, who missed the regular season finale with a neck injury, checked in and stroked a three-pointer to tie the game at 26, followed by a Josh Reed and-one for the lead.
The Wildcats snatched the lead with a pair of buckets each from Martinelli and Jack West, heading into halftime up 34-32.
Martinelli stayed hot out of the break, reaching 20 points as Northwestern extended its lead to 49-43. Two and-one conversions from Kayden Mingo kept things from getting out of hand.
Penn State continued running its offense through Jurić, who added six points and drew three fouls in the first eight minutes of the half, cutting it to a 52-47 game before the under-eight timeout, with the Nittany Lions already entering the bonus.
The Wildcats began employing a full-court press, which caused some resistance, while they advanced to a 58-51 lead on efficient shooting.
Shortly after reaching 20 points, Jurić picked up his fourth personal foul and was sent to the bench, allowing Northwestern to build its largest advantage of the night at nine points and forcing Rhoades to burn a timeout.
Jurić checked back in, but the offense remained dysfunctional, turning the ball over frequently as the Wildcats extended their lead to 68-55.
“I’m not gonna say we were lazy,” Rhoades said. “Our guys played hard today. We played the right way. We got off to a good start. We just, that’s the next step for us. If you’re going to beat a Big Ten team in March, you can’t give them the ball.”
After a nearly five-minute scoring drought, Dilione hit a fadeaway jumper to spark a brief surge. Penn State pulled within 70-60, but it was too little too late as the season came to an end minutes later, 76-66.
Team leaders
Points: Ivan Jurić, 24
Assists: Kayden Mingo, 5
Rebounds: Ivan Jurić, 6
Up next: The offseason
