Penn State Looks to Bounce Back against Lafayette

Story posted December 7, 2011 in CommRadio, Sports by Tyler Stephenson

The Penn State Nittany Lions (6-3) will try to bounce back from a tough loss to Mississippi when the Lafayette Leopards (3-5) travel to State College Wednesday night.

Penn State and Lafayette last met back in the 2008-2009 season where the Nittany Lions handed the Leopards an 83-55 defeat.

The Nittany Lions are led by junior standout Tim Frazier who looks to continue his great play this season. Frazier leads the Big Ten in scoring (19.2 ppg) and assists (7.1 apg). He has fit well in his new role as team leader and go-to scoring option. He has also stood out defensively, with 2.3 steals per game so far.

Penn State head coach Pat Chambers and his squad fell 72-70 in a shootout with the Rebels of Ole Miss this past weekend. Sophomore forward Sasa Borovnjak will look to build on his outstanding 15-point output on 7-of-7 shooting from the field. Frazier led the team with 17 points and 9 assists in the game.

The Leopards and head coach Fran O’Hanlon will look to snap a three game skid that was punctuated by an 82-80 loss suffered at the hands of the Long Island Blackbirds. Penn State handed the same Blackbirds team a 77-68 defeat back on November 16.

Senior guard Nick Petkovich scored a career-high 19 points off the bench, while the team’s second leading scorer, senior Ryan Willen, poured in 21 points. The Leopards last second efforts came up just shy of overcoming a late 11 point 4th quarter deficit.

Chambers will have to watch out for the Lafayette’s senior guard Jim Mower. The sharp-shooting Mower shoots 44 percent from beyond the arc and spearheads the Leopards scoring attack (18.7 ppg). Mower is currently third in Patriot League points per game.

With big man Jonathon Graham sidelined with an illness, the Leopards will look to capitalize inside with Wallen and the 6-foot-9 Australian freshman Dan Trist. O’Hanlon likes to play mistake-free basketball and spread the ball around to multiple scorers. The Leopards average 72.9 ppg and shoot 42 percent from deep. Chambers will have to make sure to keep the Leopards from getting hot from three or it could be a long day for the Nittany Lions.

Penn State hopes to again win the battle on the glass as they did against a much bigger Ole Miss team on Sunday. After Borovnjak’s performance the other night, Chambers hopes that he can emerge as a serious second scoring option behind Frazier.

Tip-off is at 7 p.m. Wednesday night. Tune into ComRadio for complete coverage of the game, starting at 6:30 p.m. with the Basketball Pregame Show.

Tyler Stephenson is a sophomore majoring in Communications. To contact him, email tjs5461@psu.edu.