Talor Battle was supposed to have been treated like a king on Tuesday night. It was Senior Night. It was the culmination of four years of hardship and heartbreak and the Penn State senior class was supposed to pull of their biggest upset of the year to make that last NCAA Tournament push.

By the end of the night, people weren’t treating Talor like royalty. Nittany Nation was literally bowing down to Ohio State guard Jon Diebler instead.

Diebler tied the Big Ten record with 10 three-pointers, good for 30 points as he led the Buckeyes to a 82-61 shellacking of Penn State in front of the largest student crowd ever in Bryce Jordan Center history.

After a pair of Andrew Jones free throws, Ohio State opened up a 7-0 run until Battle knocked down a three and later David Jackson knocked down a three to cut the Buckeye lead to 9-8. That is the closest Penn State would be for the next 34 minutes as Diebler and William Buford controlled the rest of the first half as Ohio State went into the break with a 33-18 lead.

At one point in the second half, Ohio State was setting up Diebler for threes. On a breakout, David Lighty caught the ball near the three-point line and instead of going towards an open basket, he screened a Penn State defender while still holding onto the ball, pitched it to “Three”bler who then swiftly drained trey #9. It was that kind of night for the Lions.

Buford added 21 points for Ohio State while Jared Sullinger had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Talor Battle lead Penn State with 18 points while David Jackson added 12 and Andrew Jones had 10. Fellow senior Steve Kirkpatrick added the team’s final four points, a fitting ending for the former walk-on.

Penn State (15-13 overall, 8-9 in the Big Ten) takes on the “raging dumpster fire” that is Minnesota on Sunday to close out the regular season. They then head to the Big Ten Tournament which they will need to win in order to make it to the NCAA Tournament.

P.S. Notice I didn’t rant about the shortcomings of Ed DeChellis in this post. Check back for that on Thursday.

Cleaning the Glass:

• Penn State moved to 0-12 against the number-one ranked team in the nation.
• Battle is now 42 points away from becoming the top scorer in Penn State history.
• Diebler’s 10 threes (10-12 shooting) broke the BJC record of eight previously held by Rutgers player Quincy Douby.