Lamar Stevens’ first points, on Senior Night at the Bryce Jordan Center, came one at a time at the free-throw line.
His No. 20 Nittany Lions had already jumped No. 16 Michigan State in front of 13,437 fans, owning a lead from the onset and building it to 19 points on a Myles Dread 3-pointer late in the half. In just seven minutes, it capped a run of seven made threes for the hosts, allowing the Nittany Lions the luxury of not needing Stevens’ typically reliable offensive production, the senior forward held without a made field goal on nine tries from the floor in the first half.
With Myreon Jones in his second game back, leading the Nittany Lions with 12 points on 4 of 4 shooting from deep, to go along with a 3 of 3 clip from Dread beyond-the-arc, plus two from Lundy and another from Wheeler in an unconscious 10 of 17 effort from three, Penn State took a robust 46-31 lead to the half.
“I did not feel good about it, but I did not feel bad,” Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo said. “They made every shot you could take, and when you make those kinds of shots, some of them were poor defense, some of them were great shots.”
Not rattled, the Spartans let Penn State know it to open the second half.
Beginning with an Aaron Henry 3-pointer, the visitors ripped off a 9-0 run behind a late-shot clock layup from Rocket Watts, penetrating the Nittany Lions’ defense, followed by a pair of pull-up jumpers. Interspersed by four-straight Penn State 3-point misses, two by Lundy, another from Jones and an early possession, NBA-ranger from Wheeler, their lead dwindled from 15 at the half to 46-38 to draw a Chambers timeout.
Suddenly cold from deep, the head coach looked to Stevens to steady the ship with his presence in the paint. Instead of the calming bucket to stop Michigan State’s run, though, the sequence proved indicative of a matchup with Xavier Tillman that never tilted in Stevens’ direction.
Working from the low post moving left into the paint, Stevens’ shot fake didn’t tempt Tillman, leaving the Spartan senior to eventually garner a block and go the other way. Whipping the ball on the perimeter with a frenetic pace, the Spartans eventually landed the ball back in Watts’ hands for a fading runner on the baseline.
Earning a trip to the free-throw line soon after, Stevens temporarily stanched the bleeding to retake a 49-42 lead, but the Spartans were rolling downhill offensively.
Upon the return to action from the U16 media timeout, a second-chance Henry dunk off a Tillman 3-point miss and Henry’s 3-pointer evened the score for the first time since the opening whistle, 49-49.
“Those first four minutes were massive. They got some rebounds, they made a three, we had some turnovers and some long missed shots, some really quick shots, too. So I think that definitely swayed the momentum their way,” Chambers said. “And we'll watch the film. We'll learn. We'll continue that process of getting better. But definitely, they made some big-time attitude or winning plays that kept the momentum going in their favor.”
Now locked in a game, the Spartans starting the half with a 24-3 advantage, the Nittany Lions had few answers on either end of the court.
At last, Stevens’ first shot from the floor dropped with 12:15 left to play, the basket halting Michigan State’s 13-0 run to leave the Nittany Lions looking up, 55-51. Trading baskets the next few possessions, a Cassius Winston 3-pointer gave Michigan State it’s biggest lead of the night, 65-55, with under 10 minutes remaining.
Unwilling to roll over themselves, the Nittany Lions produced their lone run of more than 4 points in the second half, built from a pair of Mike Watkins free throws, a Stevens exasperated and-one, and his third and final, hanging, made basket while fouled, with 8:04 left to play. Producing a steal and run-out to potentially tie or cut it to a point, Stevens' dealing in the lane went unrewarded with yet another in-and-out.
Even though the buckets were enough to cut the Lions’ deficit to 65-62, Tillman again had an answer to create more cushion for the Spartans.
“Stevens will never have a game like that again, in my opinion,” Izzo said. “I think he's one of the premier players in this league. He's an easy guy to pull for because he could have left, and did this and that, and I think he improved his value tremendously and he helped his team and his program, but I think he improved himself. He's way better putting the ball on the floor. He just missed some shots. He missed some good shots. I think a little bit was our defense but a little bit was just that he had a bad night.”
Asked whether or not Stevens was suffering from fatigue at this point in the season, Chambers left little room for misinterpretation.
“He's our best player, he's gotta play,” Chambers said. “Gotta battle through mentally and physically. Now, for him, he's got a lot of pressure on his shoulders, this entire program. His face is everywhere. He's still gotta battle through.”
Able to cut their deficit to 68-66 on back-to-back garbage cleanup buckets from John Harrar, the Nittany Lions wouldn’t make another basket in the nearly five-minute stretch to close out the game, offsetting the Spartans only sporadically at the free-throw line. Ultimately connecting just 9 of 14 times from the stripe in the second half, Penn State's repeated flirtations with evening the score never came to fruition.
"We gotta get to the free throw line. We didn't make free throws. That's the time where you really need to post up and get an easy one or an offensive rebound putback or a dagger three, but we weren't making our threes and we weren't making our free throws," Chambers said of the second-half offensive performance. "And I think we missed some layups. We missed some layups during that run. So they were able to get the rebound and they take the ball, just like we do, from one end to the other very quickly and they were able to get some easy baskets.
“We jumped them, and they came out and jumped us. We have to prevent that from happening. We got to play that much harder. And we got to figure that out. We were doing it for eight-straight games when we had that great winning streak. So it's in us. We just gotta bring it back.”
The Nittany Lions (21-9 overall, 11-8 Big Ten) will get that opportunity when they travel to Northwestern Saturday to close out the regular season (4 p.m., BTN).
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