Penn State Men’s Basketball Falls on the Road in Low-Scoring Affair

Story posted January 17, 2022 in CommRadio, Sports by Austin Groft

Ohio State completed the season sweep over the Nittany Lions in a close, low-scoring game with a final score of 61-56.

They say in all sports that defense travels well and that was the case for Penn State on Sunday. The Nittany Lions held the Buckeyes to 61 points on 39% shooting from the field. This was 14 points below Ohio State’s season-scoring average.

Penn State was without Seth Lundy, who held E.J. Liddell to just 14 points when they played in the Bryce Jordan Center six weeks prior to this matchup.

In this matchup, Liddell had 19 points and displayed his unique skill set.

“He attacks in a lot of different ways. We guarded and fought, but they did a good job of finding him in his spots to make tough shots,” Penn State head coach Micah Shrewsberry said.

The Nittany Lions also did a great job of defending the 3-point line. Ohio State made only 3, tying its season low, and coming into this game they averaged 8.9 3’s a game.

Twenty four of Ohio State’s 61 points came from the free-throw line.

The Buckeyes attempted a season-high 36 free throws. Penn State had multiple players in foul trouble with Both Myles Dread and Jalanni White fouling out of the game.

“I thought we fouled too much, going for undisciplined steals. They then got in the bonus and started pounding the ball inside,” Shrewsberry said.

Penn State’s offense started off strong leading 10-4 in the first four minutes of the game. Greg Lee had a few jumpers, and despite being without leading scorer Seth Lundy, it seemed as if the Nittany Lions would still be able to produce offensively.

They went on to score only 12 more points the rest of the half on 29% shooting from the field. Penn State was able to get several good looks from deep offensively, but it couldn’t make them.

“If you want to win on the road, you and you want to beat someone of this caliber you got to knock those shots down,” Shrewsberry said. 

Dallion Johnson played a career-high 19 minutes tonight due to Lundy’s absence and provided valuable minutes. He had himself a triple and layup in the second half that kept Penn State in the game.

Jevonnie Scott also came off the bench with a big-time dunk and reverse layup giving efficient minutes for the Nittany Lions.

After not playing well against Purdue, Sam Sessoms has led Penn State in scoring in back-to-back games with 15 tonight.

Penn State will host its next game against Minnesota on Wednesday.

“I think we are playing the right way. We need to be firing on all cylinders,” Shrewsberry said. “There are not nights off in the Big Ten. We got a really good Minnesota team coming in Wednesday so we got to bounce back and be ready.”


Austin Groft is a third-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email atg5271@psu.edu.