Penn State Men’s Basketball Game Grades: Ohio State

Story posted January 17, 2022 in

With the chance to get over the .500 mark in Big Ten play this season, Penn State couldn’t complete the comeback on the road against the Ohio State Buckeyes.

The Nittany Lions lost 61-56 against the Buckeyes on Sunday dipping their record to 8-7 overall and 3-4 in conference play this season.

Here’s a look at how each position group performed during the loss.

Offense: D

Sunday’s loss tied with Penn State’s loss against UMass earlier in the season for the lowest points scored in a game.

The offense started hot as it jumped out to an early 10-4 lead at the first media timeout but once the Buckeyes caught back up little went right.

Only two players scored in double digits with one of them being Sam Sessoms who made his return to the starting lineup.

Sessoms ended the game with 15 points while making half of his 12 shots on the day.

Jalen Pickett also finished with 11 points playing in all 40 minutes which is a big difference from his season-high 23 points against the Buckeyes from back on Dec. 5.

Without Seth Lundy, there wasn’t much depth offensively for the Nittany Lions and that led to a performance that left much to be desired.

Defense: B+

Speaking of Seth Lundy, the defense didn’t suffer as much as it could have despite Lundy not being there to guard E.J Liddell.

Liddell finished with 19 points in the game but he was one of only two Buckeyes players to score in double figures.

Ohio State had its worst offensive performance against a Big Ten opponent since its loss back on Jan. 6 when the Buckeyes only put up 51 points on the road against Indiana.

Despite being out-rebounded and in foul trouble for a good portion of the game, the Nittany Lion defense managed to hold their own and keep the game competitive until the very end against a talented Buckeyes team.

Coaching: B-

This wasn’t a badly coached game from Micah Shrewsberry at all, especially with the game as competitive as it was.

Sunday’s game was one of the better games for the Nittany Lions in the turnover battle as they only coughed the ball up seven times compared to the Buckeyes’ nine.

Penn State did find itself in foul trouble for a good portion of the game with 25 personal fouls and eventually led to both Myles Dread and Jalanni White fouling out.

Despite the foul trouble, Shrewsberry did a good job keeping his team in the game and if it weren’t for a sluggish end to the first half we could have seen a different result.

Logan Bourandas is a third-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email lxb5412@psu.edu.