Penn State’s Two-Game Big Ten Win Streak Snapped in 74-67 Loss to No. 3 Purdue
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- Penn State had its two-game Big Ten win streak come to an end on Saturday afternoon after a 74-67 loss to No. 3 Purdue.
The Nittany Lions gave the Boilermakers everything they could handle and more. They were leading by a point with just over three minutes remaining until Coach Painter’s squad closed the game out on a 10-2 scoring run.
Penn State head coach, Micah Shrewsberry, was taking on his former school in Purdue where he coached for four seasons. It took an unusual amount of time for him to arrive at the postgame press conference, but he had a pretty good reason as to why.
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” Shrewsberry said. “But what Coach Painter has done for me in my career, like, I am going to talk to him after the game. We’re going to spend some time talking, we’re going to talk about our teams and I’m going to try and get some help from him too.”
The overlapping coaching DNA was certainly evident throughout the game, and Coach Painter spoke to what Coach Shrewsberry was able to do.
“I said before the game that I think he has an advantage because he knows us like he knows our personnel,” Painter said. “He knows our players, he’s coached our players, he’s recruited some of them. I think that piece definitely gives him a bit of an advantage.”
Shrewsberry was able to use that knowledge late in the first half when senior guard Sasha Stefanovic was lighting it up offensively for the Boilermakers with his two big men, Zach Edey and Trevion Williams, in foul trouble.
Coach Shrewsberry put the Nittany Lions in a box and one defense with Myles Dread face guarding Stefanovic everywhere he went. The defense slowed down the Purdue scoring attack and allowed Penn State to head into the half only trailing by five.
Stefanovic was asked about that defense that was played against him. “I have never seen it in college against myself, obviously you know in high school some different teams did it,” he said. “We didn’t really work on that, we didn’t really expect them to do that, but we just tried to get into our offense and do our basic motion and try to beat it that way.”
Purdue dominated the first 12 minutes of the second half starting the half on a 9-2 run. Penn State could not quite crack into the Purdue lead for most of the second half until an 11-2 run that cut the lead to four points with 8:11 remaining.
Penn State hit nine shots in a row down the stretch, rewarding themselves with the lead late, but the veteran Purdue squad took over in the end, closing the game on a 10-2 run to secure their 13th victory of the season.
The Penn State Nittany Lions fall to 7-6 on the season and 2-3 in Big Ten play. They will be back in action on Tuesday night as they host the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in the Bryce Jordan Center at 6:30 p.m.
Trevor Grady is a fourth-year majoring in supply chain management. To contact him, email tmg5685@psu.edu.
