COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Penn State men's basketball team fell in the Big Ten conference opener to No. 6 Ohio State, 106-74. The Buckeyes shot 57.4 percent for the game and connected on 12 of their 14 3-pointers in the second half to pull away with the win.
Sophomore guard Izaiah Brockington had a season-best 19 points and freshman forward Seth Lundy contributed 10 off the bench. Lamar Stevens, who was tagged with two first-half fouls, had 11 points. He played only 17 minutes after picking up his fourth and fifth fouls in a 32-second span in the 13th minute.
"Obviously, Ohio State played great," said Penn State men's basketball coach Patrick Chambers. "They shot the ball really well in the second half. They have a lot of firepower, very explosive. I thought the second half we were playing much better, obviously, until Lamar picked up his fifth foul. And even so, those couple of minutes there, I thought we really competed, we did some good things…Give (Wesson) credit, Wesson was terrific today. To be an elite team, to win versus top-10 teams, we are going to need everybody to play well."
Despite Stevens, Penn State's top scorer, out of the game, the Nittany Lions cut the Buckeye lead to eight, 63-55, at the 12:45 mark of the second half. Following an Ohio State timeout, the Buckeyes hit six of their next seven field goals from three-point range to power a 19-9 run over the next six minutes to propel Ohio State to a 85-64 lead.
A Ohio State 15-0 run over three minutes, as Penn State struggled from the field and had back-to-back turnovers, allowed the Buckeyes to further to their lead to get to 100-64. Baskets by Brockington, Myreon Jones and Trent Buttrick in the last two minutes pushed the Nittany Lions over the 70-point mark.
The Nittany Lions were unable to overcome a slow start against the Buckeyes, with 28 percent shooting from the field followed by a five-minute scoring drought where they went 0-9 in that stretch. Ohio State added seven points to its lead for a 20-9 score before Stevens knocked in a 3-pointer.
Andre and Kaleb Wesson combined for the next 10 Buckeye points to pull the OSU lead back up to double-digits, 30-17. In the last 4:58 of the half, Brockington scored seven points, Lundy connected for a triple and Myles Dread and Jamari Wheeler both hit two free throws get Penn State within seven. Stevens added a bucket to get to nine points before the break with Ohio State up 46-35 at the half.
Ohio State's Kaleb Wesson finished the afternoon with a game-high 28 points and 10 rebounds, going 9-16 from the field and Andre Wesson had 15 points. Kaleb Wesson, Luther Muhammad, and Duane Washington, Jr. each had four 3-pointers for the Buckeyes.
Penn State returns to the Bryce Jordan Center for the second of its two early December Big Ten Conference games at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 10 against No. 3/4 Maryland.
For more information about single-game tickets or the mobile flex plan for men's basketball, visit the online ticket information page or call 1-800-NITTANY weekdays from 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
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