Sitting winless in Big Ten play, Penn State welcomed its toughest foe yet to the Bryce Jordan Center on Tuesday night — No. 2 Michigan.
Making matters more difficult, the Nittany Lions were without freshman guard Kayden Mingo, the team’s leading scorer, who was out with an injury. Without getting into details, head coach Mike Rhoades said after the game he’ll “be out for a little bit.”
Pegged as massive underdogs, Penn State kept the game interesting until the final seconds but ultimately succumbed to the undefeated Wolverines, 74-72.
“I loved how our guys battled, they played with great grit,” Rhoades said. “I told them the challenge would be to play tough and together, I thought they did that.”
How it happened
In addition to Mingo’s absence — which was filled by Dominick Stewart — Penn State made another change to the starting rotation, with Tibor Mirtic in for Josh Reed.
Reed had no points in the Nittany Lions’ most recent outing, a 73–65 loss to Illinois, and Mirtic brings slightly more size, potentially a countermeasure for a tall Wolverine squad.
Ivan Juriċ got the party started with seven points, a rebound and a steal in the opening minutes, guiding Penn State to an early 9-4 advantage.
“Go into every game, play as hard as you can no matter who the opponent is,” Juriċ said.
Coming off his two highest-scoring games of the season, freshman Mason Blackwood earned some early playing time, checking in before the under-16 media timeout.
Juriċ quickly became the first Nittany Lion to reach double digits before he was subbed out for Saša Ciani.
“(Juriċ) was aggressive on both ends of the court … I just really liked his composure today, played off two feet, was strong … cleared space,” Rhoades said.
The lead quickly evaporated after a series of missed shots, and an 11-point Wolverine run turned the tide. Costly turnovers were the only thing preventing the Wolverines from breaking the game wide open, but they still took a 24-17 lead into the under-eight timeout.
After a hot start, Penn State went cold from the field, making just two of 16 shots down the stretch before a Blackwood jumper stopped the bleeding.
Michigan’s L.J. Cason caught fire, scoring seven points in the final five minutes of the frame to reach a season-high 14 points before the break and give the Wolverines a 40-31 edge.
The beginning of the second half resembled the first, with Jurić responsible for the team’s first three points on a goaltending call and free throw. He cooled off with a couple missed shots before being subbed out.
Shortly after falling into its biggest deficit of the night, 53-40, Penn State surged to an 8-2 run, including four points from Freddie Dilione V. A pair of Michigan triples fended off the rally momentarily.
“I thought we really tightened our screws on defense,” Rhoades said. “I told them in the one timeout, we gotta get some stops here, and we got four out of five stops.”
With the Wolverines in foul trouble, Juriċ applied pressure and forced whistles, knocking down four free throws and adding a 3-pointer to extend his career-high to 20 points. Carrying the team, he narrowed the deficit to 63-57 before the under-eight break.
“We though we had an advantage with me going against their big guy, so we kind of used that a little bit, and I thought I played good,” Juriċ said.
After a lengthy review for possession, Dilione knocked down a triple to briefly cut the lead to three, but Michigan responded with a 4-point run to once again stave off the upset-minded Nittany Lions.
With the game hanging in the balance, a series of questionable calls set the crowd ablaze, giving the Wolverines opportunities to maintain the lead from the charity stripe.
With under two to play, Melih Tunca drained a three-ball to make it 73-70 before a Josh Reed steal gave the Nittany Lions the ball back. Then it was Michigan on the receiving end of a whistle, sending Eli Rice to the line for a pair of shots — he knocked down both.
After an ill-advised missed three-pointer from the Wolverines, Penn State couldn’t convert on the other end and was forced to foul with just 15.1 seconds remaining. Dilione took the inbounds pass with the NIttany Lions down 74-72 and held for the final shot, but his 3-pointer clanged out after the buzzer.
“Initially we wanted to get a shot for Eli, but they ended up switching the ball screen … just so happens that I ended up missing,” Dilione said.
Team leaders:
Points: Ivan Juriċ, 20
Rebounds: Josh Reed, 10
Assists: Freddie Dilione V, 4
Up next: The road doesn’t get much easier for Penn State, which will pay a visit to No. 5 Purdue at the Mackey Arena on Saturday, with tipoff set for 2 p.m.
