The Penn State men’s basketball team hoped to end their regular season on a positive note today in Piscataway, New Jersey against Rutgers.
But the Nittany Lions dug themselves too deep of a hole in the first half and couldn’t get themselves completely out of it.
The Scarlet Knights held off a Penn State comeback in the second half to win the contest 74-62.
The game started out with a furious pace and both teams were trading buckets.
At the first media timeout (15:14) Penn State was up on the Scarlet Knights 10-8.
Ivan Juric was 2-for-2 from the field and had four points for Penn State.
Rutgers, though, went on a 12-0 run and stretched their lead to 20-10 behind five points from Tariq Francis (10:29).
PSU was forced to call a timeout.
Penn State was shooting 36% from the field and was 0-for-5 from three-point range, while Rutgers was shooting 67% from the field and 40% from deep.
Kayden Mingo then stopped the Nittany Lions’ scoring drought with a drive to the hoop to make the score 20-12 (10:08).
But then Rutgers went on another run (14-0) and at the third media timeout of the first half the score was Rutgers 34 PSU 14 (3:48).
Josh Reed this time stopped Penn State’s scoring drought with a made three and Freddie Dilione V. had a nice drive to hoop and with (1:28) until halftime the score was 39-19.
HALFTIME: RUTGERS 43 PENN STATE 21
To start the second half, the Nittany Lions came out with more urgency, and at the first media timeout of the second half (15:33) the score was 51-32.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Penn State then went on an 11-2 run and had their deficit down to 17 points, 51-34 (13:47).
Dilione was leading the Nittany Lions’ spurt with 13 total points.
At the second media timeout, Rutgers stayed in control of the game, though, by a score of 54-36 (11:44).
Freshman, Lino Mark, was leading Rutgers with 16 points and Francis followed with 13 points (7:52).
Penn State was trying to make a late push and was down 14 with (5:39) left in the game, but time was not on their side.
They were also only shooting 15% (3-20) from three-point range.
With (3:06) to play the Scarlet Knights were trying to fend off a Penn State comeback as they saw their lead dwindle to 12 points, 67-55.
But the Scarlet Knights held strong and did not let the Nittany Lions get any closer.
Rutgers closed out the game and won their last regular season home game, 74-62.
Francis for the Scarlet Knights led all scorers with 18 points, while Penn State’s Juric and Dilone each had 16 points apiece.
Penn State’s next game is on Tuesday, March 10 at approximately 7:30 p.m. EST as they will play in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament against Northwestern.
The Nittany Lions dropped their regular season contest at Northwestern on January 29 by a score of 94-73.
