Penn State men’s basketball falls 80-60 to No. 1 Purdue Boilermakers on the road
Penn State was unable to knock off the No. 1 team in the country Wednesday night in West Lafayette, Indiana. The Nittany Lions fell to the Purdue Boilermakers 80-60 in Mackey Arena.
Here are five takeaways from Penn State’s loss.
Edey dominates early
Purdue center Zach Edey has been a problem for every opponent he’s faced this season and Wednesday was no different. The 7-foot-4 center made his impact felt early on, racking up eight points and seven rebounds before he was even subbed out for the first time in the game. He was able to crash the offensive glass and haul in four offensive rebounds in that time, frequently getting putback layups on those opportunities to give Purdue second chance points.
Edey’s presence allowed the Nittany Lions to get some open looks from deep, but scared off almost every attempt at the rim thanks to his size and length. His presence made things even more difficult for an already undersized Penn State team.
Cold shooting allows Purdue to get up
Penn State has struggled from deep on the road, and that was never more the case than the Nittany Lions’ last road game against Rutgers when they only made four 3-pointers. Wednesday night’s start was much of the same for the team. They made only four of their first 14 attempts from beyond the arc. While that matched the game total from the matchup with the Scarlet Knights, it wasn’t good enough to keep the game close early.
Purdue built its lead to as much as 12 in the first half, largely because Penn State was unable to make open shots when it generated them. This team is too reliant on shots from deep to go that cold and keep themselves from falling behind early on in games.
Edey cools off ...
Penn State double-teamed Edey most of the night and became more aggressive with that after he started off well. The Nittany Lions were effective from that standpoint, limiting his impact and forcing him to pass the ball. The Purdue big man is adept at many facets of the game, but his passing can lag behind his other skills when he has the ball. He didn’t start coughing the ball up, but his passes were off target enough at times that the Purdue offense had to reset what it was doing.
That stalled the Boilermakers out a little, but eventually any concerns they could have had from Edey getting double teamed were quelled by an unlikely sharpshooter.
... and Gillis heats up
Those double teams generally came from whoever was guarding Purdue forward Mason Gillis — who came into the game shooting 32.1% from beyond the arc on 2.8 3-pointers per game — on the perimeter. That left the Purdue wing open, generally not the worst outcome for Penn State given how poorly he had shot this season. That was very much not the case Wednesday night. He lit up the Nittany Lions from beyond the arc, raining in nine 3-pointers in the game on 12 attempts.
His scoring led a Purdue run that pushed the Boilermakers’ lead to 21 with just under 13 minutes left and they never looked back. He scored the team’s first 11 points of the second half and all but ended the game with that stretch.
Penn State freshmen struggle
The Nittany Lions have needed one of their freshmen to step up in conference play, but if anything Wednesday night was a step back for the group. Four of the five played, but they only combined for 18 minutes before the bench was emptied and the game was out of hand. Evan Mahaffey, Kebba Njie and Kanye Clary have been the three who have contributed at times this season, but none of them were able to make enough of an impact to stay on the court for the Nittany Lions.
They still need one of them to step up, and those three will continue being the best options to do so.
