Penn State Loses Regular Season Finale At Buzzer
Wisconsin’s Traevon Jackson stunned the Bryce Jordan Center crowd with a buzzer beating three pointer to give the Badgers a 63-60 victory in the final regular season game for both teams.
With the loss, the Nittany Lions finish their conference schedule with an overall record of 10-20 and 2-16 in conference play. With the victory, the Badgers moved to 21-10 and 12-6 in the Big Ten.
Penn State’s guard tandem of Jermaine Marshall and D.J. Newbill led the team in scoring again like they have all season. Marshall finished with 23 points and Newbill had 22. Sophomore Ross Travis led the team with 11 rebounds.
Newbill felt the game today was a learning experience for him and his teammates, but in the end, they want to win games.
“You always get a great lesson from a loss,” Newbill said. “At the same time, we’re not cool with moral victories.”
Jackson’s three at the buzzer capped off a 15 point game for the Badgers’ sophomore guard. Freshman Sam Dekker contributed 14 points off the bench
Penn State head coach Pat Chambers was upset after the game that his team was not able to pull out the win after putting up such a good effort.
“I really felt like we earned the right to win this one,” Chambers said. “That’s why this one hurts because they did everything to earn it.”
Wisconsin won the opening tip and came out firing. Back-to-back threes from junior Ben Brust to open the game helped Wisconsin to an 8-0 run in the first 2:26.
The Badgers were hot in the opening minutes going 7-10 from the field to start the game and led 16-7 at the 13:03 mark of the first half. Wisconsin went 3-17 the rest of the half, opening the door for Penn State.
Penn State took advantage of Wisconsin’s cold stretch and tied up the game at 18 with 8:15 remaining in the first half. A three-point play from Marshall on a slam-dunk punctuated the 10-0 run.
“We got down early, but nobody hung their heads,” Marshall said. “We made a little run to get back in the game.”
Brust’s jumper from the wing with 5:07 remaining in the first half ended Wisconsin’s six minute scoring drought.
Penn State received a standing ovation from the crowd of 8,701 at the BJC as they headed off to the locker room with a 25-24 halftime lead.
Wisconsin senior Ryan Evans spent much of the second half on the bench in foul trouble, but Dekker put up solid minutes filling in.
Penn State ramped up the pressure early in the second half and forced back-to-back turnovers, which allowed them to open up a 31-28 lead with 16:17 remaining in the game.
Berggren limped off the court after injuring his right ankle at the 11:22 mark of the second half. He later re-entered the game, but appeared to be in pain while running the floor.
A three from Dekker opened up a 43-38 lead for the Badgers and Wisconsin appeared to be back in control with 11:13 left in the game.
The Nittany Lions responded with a 7-0 run that culminated with a Jermaine Marshall three to put Penn State back in front 45-43 with 9:04 to go.
Both teams battled back and forth down the stretch in a game that featured six ties and 18 lead changes.
With Penn State trailing 58-56, Marshall was unable to hit a jumper from the foul line that would have tied the game with under a minute remaining.
Two free throws from Wisconsin’s Mike Bruesewitz gave the Badgers a brief four-point lead but Newbill quickly came back the other way with a layup to cut the lead to two.
On the ensuing possession, Bruesewitz threw away an inbounds pass, giving the Nittany Lions new life. Coming out of a timeout, Newbill knocked down an elbow jumper to tie the game at 60 with just 5.6 seconds left.
The game appeared destined for overtime until Jackson sprinted up the floor with just seconds remaining to knock down the game winner from the deep wing as time expired.
“We tried to make them take a contested long shot,” Newbill said. “Unfortunately, it went in.”
Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan feels that the unpredictable nature of this game helps his team as they prepare for the Big Ten Tournament.
“Anything can happen in postseason,” Ryan said. “Some guys are struggling and they manage to pick each other up and that’s what tournaments are like.”
Penn State will be the No. 12 seed in the Big Ten Tournament in Chicago. They will be in action this Thursday at 1:30 in what might be their final game of the season.
Dan Cronin is a junior majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email djc5353@psu.edu.
