Hoosiers Come Up Short 61-58 in Tough Loss at Penn State

Indiana let one slip away on Sunday, falling 61-58 to Penn State at the Bryce Jordan Center. The Hoosiers struggled to shoot, making just 4-of-17 three-pointers, and they allowed Nittany Lions shooters too many open looks during a second-half run.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Penn State coach Micah Shrewsberry is an Indiana kid who grew up idolizing Bob Knight, so much so that he "would have crawled to Indiana if I was good enough'' to play for the legendary coach.

He also thinks the world of current Indiana Mike Woodson too, after battling him often when he was an assistant in the NBA and Woodson was coaching the New York Knicks. Shrewsberry knew it would take something out of the ordinary to beat Indiana on Sunday, and that's what he did. He mixed up defenses often, and also changed how he got shooters open during an important second-half run.

He pushed enough buttons to lead his Nittany Lions to a 61-58 win on Sunday at the Bryce Jordan Center. He orchestrated the one run in the game, and then held off the Hoosiers with some timely stops to pull out a win.

"We changed a little bit from one half to the next with how they were guarding it,'' Shrewsberry said. "Coach Woodson, he's an unbelievable coach and he was going to figure it out. When we had Myles Dread as our four man, he was able to break free from their bigs, too. We got some good looks, and we knocked them down.''

Neither team was great offensively for much of the game and Indiana led much of the first half, but just barely. The Hoosiers' biggest lead was five, and the teams basically traded punches for the first 25 minutes of the game. No one had made a run of any kind.

But midway through the second half, Shrewsberry changed the way they were attacking with screen-rolls up top, and he started getting his three-point shooters good looks.

Myles Dread tied the game at 36-36 with 14 minutes to go, and Sam Sessoms followed with another three to give Penn State the lead. Three minutes later, Dread hit another three and Sessoms made two on back-to-back possessions, putting the Nittany Lions up 10 at 51-41 with 10:28 to go.

Indiana has covered the three-point line fairly well most of the season, but not on Sunday. Penn State, which came into the game hitting just 32 percent from three, made 11-of-22 long balls, which made the difference. 

"I'm looking at how we gave up threes tonight,'' Woodson said. "You've got to give them credit. They ran some pick-and-rolls up top, but our pick-and-roll coverage wasn't as good as we have been. We've been pretty good at that this year, but tonight we weren't. It was terrible in that area. Just awful.''

"We were focusing on doing something else in practice. We changed up at halftime, and we messed up some things a little bit,'' Thompson said. "I thought our defense was good enough to win, but we need to keep getting better on offense.

Indiana pecked away, cutting the lead to one at 51-50 after two Rob Phinisee baskets, but they could never regain the lead.

Trailing 59-58, Indiana got a stop with 21 seconds left, and had a chance to win. After a timeout, Jackson-Davis got the inbounds pass and drove to the rim on Penn State big man John Harrar, but the shot rolled off the rim.

It was a good look, but it just didn't go down.

"I had the ball, and I ripped him. I tried to lean over and scoop it, but it didn't go,'' Jackson-Davis said. 

Indiana was forced to foul, and Sessoms made both free throws with 13 seconds to go to make it 61-58. The Hoosiers hurried downcourt and Phinisee got a good look from three near the top of the key. It missed, but the rebounded bounced long and wound up in Jackson-Davis' hands. He put up a three just ahead of the buzzer, but it didn't go.

The Hoosiers had their chances, but couldn't convert.

"We got some good shots. Trayce missed two bunnies, what I call. He missed two down the stretch that were big shots,'' Woodson said. "You've got to go to him. He's capable of going around guys and getting to the rim, so I felt good about going to him.

"During that two-three minute span at the end, we couldn't even get a rebound and that really hurt. It might have been fatigue, being tired. You've got to have some juice in the tank coming down the stretch. When you're in a close game like that, you've got to come up with the ball, and they did enough to secure it down the stretch.''

Jackson-Davis had 20 points in 33 minutes of playing time, but he was the only Hoosier in double figures. Thompson, Xavier Johnson and Rob Phinisee all had nine, but starters Miller Kopp and Parker Stewart played a combined 60 minutes and made just 3-of-9 shots all night.

Jackson-Davis knows that scoring 58 points as a team isn't going to cut it, and the Hoosiers have to get other shooters more involved. Indiana shot 39.7 percent from the field (23-for-58) and were just 4-for-17 from three-point range (23.5 percent)

"We can't have the ball stick,'' he said. "We need to move the ball and especially when they do come over and double, we've got to find them to get them shots. I don't it's acceptable to get the shots they got tonight.''

Indiana is now 10-3 on the season and 1-2 in the Big Ten. Penn State is 6-5 and 1-2 in the league. For the first time all year, they were outrebounded by double digits. Jalen Pickett had 15 points, Dread had 12 on 4-for-5 shooting from three and Sessoms had 10, making 2-of-3 threes. They also outrebounded Indiana 39-29, with John Harrar grabbing 12.

"We didn't keep them off the boards, and we can't have that,'' Thompson said.

Indiana also isn't going to win many games scoring 58 points, their lowest output of the year.

"They showed a zone, and we've been pretty good in that area,'' Woodson. "But we were froze early, like we were in quicksand and we weren't moving it. We couldn't make a shot either. We were only 4-for-17 (from three), and we've been better than that.''

Indiana has a few days to fix things before hosting No. 13 Ohio State on Thursday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers are 9-0 at home, but this will certainly be their biggest test in Bloomington thus far.

"We've got to go home now and beat Ohio State. They're next on our list,'' Woodson said. "We've been pretty good in our building and wee've got two or three days to get ready for them.''