Penn State Men’s Basketball: Nightmare Second Half Dooms Nittany Lions in 59-56 Loss to Rutgers

It was a nightmare finish for Penn State on Sunday night as the Nittany Lions fell 59-56 to Rutgers, likely putting an end to any reasonable path to the NCAA Tournament in the process.

Listing the misfortunes that plagued Penn State feels more like reading an ancient text of curses than a game story. The Nittany Lions blew a 19-point second half lead as they made one of their final 18 shots from the field, not scoring away from the free throw line in the final 9:16 of regulation. Star point guard Jalen Pickett didn’t attempt a shot in the second half, double-teamed and desperate to find teammates who could make Rutgers pay. Seth Lundy entered the game ranked No. 9 in the nation in three-point percentage and fellow shooter Andrew Funk entered not far behind. The duo went 1-for-18 from beyond the arc with Lundy accounting for 11 of those misses.

In the back of head coach Micah Shrewsberry’s mind it must have felt like he was flipping a coin that constantly landed on heads, betting his life’s saving that the next one would land on tails. It had to, and yet it didn’t. These shots had to fall, and yet they wouldn’t. If Shrewsberry had managed to avoid the seemingly cursed existence that is Penn State men’s basketball for the first year on the job, Sunday night was his baptism into that realm. These things, for whatever reason, simply happen to Penn State.

That’s the true twist of the knife for all involved – Lundy and Funk were open. Pickett was doing what he has done all year and what has worked all year. When he is double-teamed, he finds open shooters and they make open shots. One can argue until they’re blue in the face about whether or not Pickett should have spent his time doing something else in the second half but it was impossible to imagine both players going so cold for so long, often while so wide open.

But they did go that cold, and for the long. Because that’s what happens to Penn State.

“He’s leading the Big Ten in three-point percentage,” Shrewsberry said of Lundy after the game. “I’m going to trust him, maybe there’s that one that goes in.”

If Penn State had been playing poorly all night that may have been one thing, but leading at halftime 31-21 and a 19-point second half lead on the backs of a white-hot first half and a 11-2 run to open the second did plenty to boost the morale of an energized Bryce Jordan Center. It was fair to think the late season push towards the postseason was legitimate and on the verge of being turned from cautious optimism into full-fledged hope.

But then the shots stopped falling and Rutgers plodded forward, making its shots, getting its stops, free throws and steals, turning a blowout into a tighter and tighter game. Ahead by two with 1:31 to go, the Nittany Lions couldn’t find the stop they needed or make the open shots that were there to make. Myles Dread would get his first shot of the game with just seconds to go with Penn State down three, but it sailed wide. All of this in the face of otherwise solid outings by Cam Wynter who scored 16 and Pickett’s first half 11 points. Eight by Kebba Njie was an added boost and Lundy managed seven, even in spite of his struggles.

Regurgitating the slow death of a dream seems like cruel and unusual punishment for fans of a program who have seen similar movies before. The irony of course is that for as much as Penn State seems to be cursed, the Nittany Lions have – since 2018 – won the NIT, come up days shy of officially making the NCAA Tournament that never happened due to COVID-19 and were eyeing up a reasonable path to another tournament berth. It’s a respectable run that Penn State can aspire to making the norm. And yet Sunday went from the continuation of cautious optimism and turned back into the kind of heart poisoning defeat that has steered so many away from the program for so many years.

Penn State will head to Northwestern next before closing out the regular season at the Bryce Jordan Center against Maryland. The Nittany Lions will then do their level best to try and make a run in the Big Ten Tournament and hope that whatever happens over that span was enough to punch a backdoor ticket into the tournament.

If they can remains to be seen, for as much as Penn State has come up short in moments like Sunday evening, their fans are often equally as prone to abandoning ship a few possessions too early. So check back in two weeks.