Penn State dropped to 9-11 on the year after failing to hang onto a 16-point lead early in the second half as Minnesota stormed back to beat the Nittany Lions 83-74 on Saturday. The Nittany Lions were led by a 16 point effort by Ace Baldwin Jr while Kanye Clary and Nick Kern each added 11 points to the total and forward Qudus Wahab poured in 15 of his own. Despite the hot first half shooting, the Nittany Lions couldn’t slow down a Gopher team that shot nearly 59% from the floor in the final 20 minutes of play.
Big Man Rumbling: Qudus Wahab was a force on Saturday night and an effective one at that, making 7-of-8 shots from the field, pulling down five rebounds, while picking up two blocks and two steals – all while committing just two fouls. Wahab has been under the gun pretty much all season long as Penn State’s only real big man option and he has stepped up to the moment on more than a few occasions. Wahab is limited in some areas but you can’t fault the effort. Penn State ended up scoring 40 points in the paint on Saturday, at least 15 of those come back to Wahab.
52-29: After heading into the locker room with a 14 point lead Penn State was outscored by Minnesota 52-29 in the second half. It’s one thing to lose an early second half lead of 16 points, it’s another thing to fall apart in the fashion that Penn State did. It’s sort of amazing in many ways that it even happened. Penn State turned the ball over once in the second half, generated six steals, won the rebounding battle, scored twice as many points in the paint as Minnesota and gave up just four second chance points. Then again, the Gophers shot 58.6% from the field while the Nittany Lions cooled to a 35.7% clip. Penn State has shown flashes of offensive competency, but it rarely lasts a full 40 minutes.
7: For as good as Penn State is at forcing turnovers, the Nittany Lions have also gotten a lot better at taking care of the ball too. Penn State coughed it up just seven times on Saturday night, but Minnesota made the most of those mistakes with 11 points off of turnovers. That’s a 1.5 point per turnover clip. Penn State meanwhile scored 16 points off of turnovers but only at a .75 points per turnover rate. Big part of the reason why Minnesota managed to win the fast break point battle 14-4.
Bumps and Bruises: Nick Kern and Kanye Clary both left Saturday’s game late in the second half with various injuries. While neither seemed serious in the long term, Penn State can’t really afford to lose either – and especially not both – of them moving forward. Clary struggled going 3-for-12 from the field and Kern was not far off going 4-for-10, but Penn State isn’t going to get their 22 points from someone else. Especially since both players are generally more efficient than they were on Saturday.
Oh Boy: There is obviously a belief that Leo O’Boyle can find his stroke from beyond the arc – he has never shot worse than 35.1% from deep in his four year career – but that has yet to happen for Penn State. O’Boyle has played 12+ minutes in three of Penn State’s last five games and has three points to show for it. There’s nothing to say that he won’t find his stroke, and he might have to if Clary and Kern miss any meaningful time, but so far that has yet to happen. Jameel Brown and Demetrius Lilley might bring very different skillsets to the table than O’Boyle, but they might be worth getting more run than they have recently. Lilley had eight first half points on Saturday while Brown played just two minutes.
