Penn State Loses Stinger to Indiana, Likely Ending Its Season

The Nittany Lions give up a late layup and fall to the Hoosiers at the Big Ten Basketball Tournament.

With the game tied and 3 seconds separating the shot and game clocks, Penn State defended Indiana forward Malik Reneau well and forced a missed layup. But Bloomington native Anthony Leal crashed the offensive glass and beat a small Penn State lineup to convert a second-chance layup with 5 seconds remaining. Penn State's Puff Johnson had a deep look from 3-point range that fell short, and Indiana defeated the Nittany Lions 61-59 in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament.

Barring an unlikely NIT bid, Mike Rhoades’ first season in Happy Valley will end with a 16-17 overall record (10-12 in the Big Ten). The Lions enjoyed two court-storming ranked wins over Illinois and Wisconsin to go alongside brutal losses like one against Bucknell. It was all part of the Year 1 experience with a new coach in this era of college athletics.

“It's that time of the year where guys make plays, and you gotta live with it,” Rhoades said after the loss. “I loved our effort. I loved how these guys were trying to find a way to win the game. We just didn't. Give credit to Indiana.”

Seniors Ace Baldwin Jr. and Puff Johnson were available to the media after the game. Neither announced a decision on using their extra year of eligibility next season. Both said they’d need to have conversations with the coaching staff before coming to a decision.

“I hate ending the season on a loss, and that's what happened today. It hurts. It's something that you need to build on, need to learn on and as a program we can learn on,” Johnson said. “All the losses we had this year. There's always a learning piece. There's never a time where you can't learn from your mistakes.”

Things were out of sorts for Penn State from the jump Thursday. The Lions needed 3 minutes to make their first basket, an emphatic dunk by Johnson. And they waited until the 1:59 mark of the first half to make their first layup of the game. Penn State missed its first 13 chances at the rim and shot just 21 percent from the floor in the first half. Indiana, though, went to the free-throw line just once compared to Penn State’s 10, keeping the Lions’ deficit to just five at halftime.

Penn State sparked in the beginning of the second half, opening a 6-point lead over the first four minutes of the half thanks to 3-pointers from Zach Hicks and Nick Kern Jr. But the Lions went scoreless for more than five minutes from that point, turning the ball over three times in the stretch.

Indiana climbed back into the game with that run before the teams traded the lead 10 times with nine ties. Leal’s layup closed out what turned into a sloppy and physical finish, as Kern and Qudus Wahab fouled out for Penn State and six Hoosiers had at least three fouls. Wahab’s disqualification, paired with Demetrius Lilley’s inability to return to action due to injury, led to the small-ball lineup that Leal beat for the game-winner.

“I'm not gonna make an excuse about [foul trouble],” Baldwin said. “I just feel like Indiana was a good team, and they just played harder than us at the end of the day.”

Penn State’s 3-point shooting carried it to wins in the regular-season against Indiana, but the team made just 26 percent of their 3-pointers on Thursday. Indiana scored 32 points in the paint to Penn State’s 18 to help offset its own poor shooting.

After scoring a combined 45 points in two regular-season games against Indiana, Baldwin went scoreless in the first half, finished with nine points and shot 3-for-15 (0-for-7 from 3-point range). Meanwhile, Wahab scored just four points and did not make a field goal in a tough matchup with Kel’el Ware. Johnson led Penn State with 16 points, while Hicks added 11.

Ware led all scorers with 18 points for an Indiana team missing starting guard Trey Galloway. Reneau added 12, while freshman Mackenzie Mgbako tacked on 11.

After being picked last in the Big Ten’s preseason poll, Penn State won nine regular-season conference games for just the eighth time in program history. The roster featured 10 newcomers and just one returner, Kanye Clary, who played significant minutes on last year’s NCAA Tournament team. Clary was dismissed from the team in February. Rhoades reflected on the roller coaster after Thursday’s loss.

“Well here we are playing in the second round and expected to win. I think a lot of people didn't think we'd win any games. I think one time they said we were gonna lose 17 in a row. The best thing about that is, outside of our locker room, all the other noise doesn't matter,” Rhoades said. “My view, my little wide lens, there were a lot of things that helped put that foundation of our program down that we can build on. And I'm proud of our guys for that. We've come a long way.”

“I'm really proud of these guys. I just think we had moments throughout the year that all of us got really excited, saying 'Can we take the next step?' You gotta go through it all, the highs and lows and tough moments like this,” Rhoades added. “If we're going to build a program the right way to get to the top of this league, today's gotta burn for a long, long time until we put the uniform back on. We gotta live in the gym. As a coaching staff we gotta get better. We gotta get our guys better, stronger, faster, better players.”

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Max Ralph is a Penn State senior studying Broadcast Journalism with minors in sports studies and Japanese. He previously covered Penn State football for two years with The Daily Collegian and has reported with the Associated Press and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Follow him on Twitter (X) @maxralph_ and Instagram @mralph_59.