Penn State Can’t Make It Two in a Row, Routed by Wisconsin 72-56
MADISON, Wis. — Just a few days following the Penn State Nittany Lions’ upset win over Wisconsin, the Badgers learned their lesson. Fueled by a strong second half, Wisconsin flipped the script and never looked back, routing the Nittany Lions 72-56 in Madison.
Jonathan Davis led Wisconsin with 17 points off the bench: a season high for the freshman. Micah Potter was not affected by foul trouble unlike the last time these two teams met, and he took advantage with 12 points and eight rebounds while matched up on John Harrar.
The Penn State offense, which is live or die by the 3-point shot, went the latter direction, as the Nittany Lions shot a mere 6 of 24 from beyond the arc. The majority of these struggles came in the second half, when Wisconsin took over the game.
The Badgers went on a 9-0 run coming out of the locker room, fueled by a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Brad Davison in the waning seconds of the first half. The Nittany Lions were up 31-30 before Davison’s 3; it would be the last lead they had all game.
Penn State head coach Jim Ferry knew that the second half was nowhere near resemblant of when these teams met the first time this season: this past Saturday.
“You can’t let offense dictate your defense… In this league, you can’t do that,” Ferry said. “In the second half, it was the complete opposite of what happened Saturday night. It was disappointing.”
For Penn State, the scoring was scarce, as Myreon Jones was the team’s leading scorer with just 14 points. Jones was one of many Nittany Lions who struggled at the start of the second half, as he took 15 total shots but made just six of them. There was only one other double-digit scorer for the Nittany Lions: Harrar with 10.
A rare sight for Penn State was that Izaiah Brockington was kept mostly silent, finishing with just eight points and nine shots attempted. Bench spark-plugs Sam Sessoms and Myles Dread combined for just six points (all from Sessoms).
The Nittany Lions will have a few days to recover before returning to the Bryce Jordan Center where they will take on the Maryland Terrapins on Friday. The last time these two teams met in Happy Valley, Penn State upset the fourth-ranked Terps 76-69.
Logan Bourandas is a sophomore majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email lxb5412@psu.edu.
