It’s a testament to the kind of season Penn State has had this year, one in which the Nittany Lions are almost alway competitive, almost always right in the thick of things, that this is the first time all year I’m starting my game story while the game is still going on. (Spoiler: the final is 93-70.)
The scoreboard says there are six minutes left in regulation, and the score is 82-55 in favor of Nebraska, which was 1-16 in conference play and 7-21 overall coming into the game. That margin will change but not enough for the story to change along with it.
Make that 83-55.
In any case, Sunday night’s regular season home finale was the kind of game Penn State had avoided all season long. A clunker, a truly bad performance, nothing to write home about. The Nittany Lions have made 23 shots on 51 attempts so far tonight. Meanwhile Nebraska has now made (it’s 89-57 now) 12 of its 18 attempts from beyond the arc.
That is generally all you need to know about a game that started out looking like it was going to be a high-scoring affair but ended in a blowout. Penn State shot well enough start, making its first five attempts from the field before making just one of its next nine.
By then Nebraska was up 28-17 and Penn State was struggling to stop a white-hot Cornhusker’s team and struggling to find its own shooting stroke as halftime drew closer. All told the halfway point saw Nebraska leading 49-31 behind 60% shooting from the field while Penn State managed a fairly respectable rate – on any other night – of 46% shooting led by Sam Sessoms and Seth Lundy both pouring in seven of their own in the half.
In most cases hot shooting cools off as time goes along, but with 3:38 to go in regulation Nebraska is still shooting just above 60% from the field in this half alone. Meanwhile Penn State managed to shoot over 45% in both halves but had nothing in the tank to respond to Nebraska’s continued onslaught.
Another three has made it 93-63 with just over two minutes to go in regulation. Nebraska now has 14 second-chance points to Penn State’s three. The Cornhuskers are also +12 on the glass.
There isn’t much more one can say about a game like this. Penn State offered little resistance and Nebraska offered little in the way of mistakes, cold shooting or anything that gave the Nittany Lions a sense of opportunity in the second half.
For Micah Shrewsberry there’s nothing good you can take from a game like this perhaps other than the fact it was a surprise it happened in the first place. Better to be surprised by an awful performance than come to expect it.
Speaking of Shrewsberry, there is 1:29 left to play and he just put in the deepest reaches of the bench. So I’ll pack up. Penn State travels next to face Illinois on Thursday.
The final is 93-70.
