On a cold blustery night in State College, PA the Nittany Lion basketball team stepped on the Bryce Jordan Center hardwood with something to prove. Unfortunately all they really proved is they are as one dimensional as we thought they were, dropping to 6-4 by losing to Virginia Tech 66-64, 32 of Penn State 64 points coming from Talor Battle. Penn State shot 40% from the floor and 59% from the line in the loss, two stats that are becoming way too familiar to the PSU fan base.
The game started the way many of the Penn State games have started this season, as cold inside the gym as out. Once again it took Penn State a fair amount of time to get on the board with Battle scoring the first bucket at the 17:23 mark. What ensued after that was an exciting first half which seemed to be a battle of wills between Penn State’s Talor Battle (19 first half points) and Virginia Tech’s Malcolm Delaney.
Each player hitting big 3s, or leading their teams on fast breaks to easy points, putting on quite a show for the 11K fans in attendance What really seemed to hurt the Nittany Lions toward the end of the half was easy inside points by the Virginia Tech, by either not boxing out or leaving the lane open for a free drive.
In the second half it was more of the same, back and forth, most of the time Virginia Tech working to extend its lead to 5, just to see Penn State battle back to cut it to 1. In the second half it seemed that the Nittany Lions were trying to find some players to step up, but the team was pretty cold for the most part. David Jackson (12 Points) hit a big 3 at the 15 minute mark to tie the game at 43, but the supporting cast did not have enough.
The back and forth really came down to one moment with 7.7 seconds left Penn State had the ball down 2, and everyone from State College to Blacksburg knew who’s hands the rock would be in, Talor Battle. As he drove down the floor it seemed VT would double him and there may be an open look for one of the youngsters on the court, but Battle split that double team and got a good look.
Unfortunately for the Nittany Lion faithful the prophecy of Battle tying the game did not come true as the left handed layup met the rim and not the net. If this was the year we were tuning in to see this team make a tournament run, we will need to wait until another scorer can be found or developed which may be next year.
Other Notes and Stats:
- Penn State’s Talor Battle has an outside chance to become the first player in Big 10 history to score 1000 points, have 600 assists, and 600 rebounds for his career.
- At the 13:37 mark of the first half Talor Battle rolled his ankle and was forced to go to the locker, although many thought this would slow him down, it did not
- Penn State outrebounded VA Tech 41-38, and scored 17 second chance points
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