Penn State Basketball: Nittany Lions Fall In Rematch 72-56 To No. 19 Wisconsin

I was told by a veteran writer – who in hindsight may have only meant this somewhat seriously – that when it comes to writing games stories the key is to write only a little better than the team you’re covering played.

There is a balancing act here of course. Great teams and players are hard to truly grasp in the written word. You can’t fully express what it’s like to watch Saquon Barkley run, hurdling over defenders and romping through the field with speed and agility that makes other world class athletes look like amateurs.

And when it comes to bad teams, there is a professional obligation to not write so poorly that people no longer read your work. Assuming that anyone is reading it in the first place [hi mom/dad.]

There is a third obstacle implied here as well, being able to figure out how well a team actually played in the first place.

See, Penn State basketball lost on Tuesday night 72-56 to No. 19 Wisconsin just days after beating the Badgers back in the Bryce Jordan Center.

And Nittany Lions played both good and bad.

In the first half Penn State managed to hang around with a turnover-prone Wisconsin team that still – somehow – led the proceedings at the half 33-31. For the final eight minutes of the first half Penn State held Wisconsin without a basket from the floor, the Badgers settling for making good on the Nittany Lions’ 10 fouls [a mark which matched the total of all Penn State fouls just a few days prior in State College.]

As per usual, Penn State’s defense was stout, making up for a cold 3-for-11 shooting from the outside and seven Nittany Lion turnovers in the first half. Penn State managed six points from both Myreon Jones and Seth Lundy in the opening 20 minutes but even as the team shot 43% from the field it was not without a sense of opportunity missed. Especially as the Badgers’ first made shot in nearly eight minutes came at the buzzer to retake the lead.

All things considered though, it was not a bad half. Penn State was behind by just two points in a building hardly anyone ever wins at, against a team not far removed from a Top 10 ranking, the same team it had just defeated. And as anyone will tell you, it’s one thing to beat a team, it’s another thing to do it twice, let alone twice in a row in what amounted to back-to-back games.

And that held true on Tuesday and was more or less what unfolded in the second half. Penn State’s cold shooting never warmed and Wisconsin went from 11 first half turnovers to just two in the second, shooting an efficient and timely 5-for-11 from beyond the arc.

“I thought we had some good looks in the second half,” Penn State coach Jim Ferry said after the game.

And Penn State did, missing its fair share of open shots, only compounding the issue as Wisconsin slowly and methodically grew its lead. The Badgers’ lead would shrink to nine points with 15:54 to go in regulation but would never hit single-digits again as it waffled around 15 to 21 points.

By the end of the night only two Nittany Lions finished with double figures [Jones 14, John Harrar with 10] as Penn State shot 34% from the field and struggled in transition – the Nittany Lions credited with zero fast break points.

Some games are complex and complicated, others not so much. On Tuesday it was much more the latter. The Nittany Lions didn’t shoot the ball all that well, defended decently but not good enough and Wisconsin was simply too good to get beaten twice in three days by the same team.

And that’ll happen.

Penn State hits the floor against back at home on Friday against Maryland.