Penn State Hoops Defeated By Iowa 76-75

Penn State men’s basketball (13-7, 3-6 Big Ten) fell to Iowa (13-7, 4-5 Big Ten) 76-75 on the road Friday night.
The Hawkeyes held the lead for the majority of the game with Penn State pulling to within one in the final minute. Despite having a chance to win with two seconds left, the Nittany Lions couldn’t complete the comeback.
How It Happened
The Nittany Lions won the tip and Nick Kern was fouled on the first trip down the floor. Kern went 1-2 from the line before the Hawkeyes took their first possession of the game. Drew Thelwell knocked down a three before Yanic Konan Niederhauser answered with a two at the other end.
Freddie Dilione V hit a two to give the Nittany Lions the lead at 5-3. Thelwell was fouled but hit the shot and went to the line for an and-one, which he converted. After Kern was blocked, Brock Harding hit a three in transition before Kachi Nzeh and Dilione both made field goals to tie the game at 9-9.
After trading buckets, Zach Hicks gave the Nittany Lions the upper hand again after knocking down a three to put Penn State up 14-13, but Payton Sandfort answered with a three of his own on the other end.
Nzeh tied it with a bucket before Owen Freeman was fouled but made the bucket and the game went to the first media timeout. He hit the and-one opportunity after the timeout and Penn State trailed 19-16. Hicks nailed a triple on the next trip down the floor to get the score back to even at 19-19.
Both sides hit jumpers but Iowa took the lead on a missed three from Dominick Stewart with a foul on the other end as the Hawkeyes led 25-21. Niederhauser was fouled and made both free throws as the Nittany Lions drew back to within two at 25-23.
The Hawkeyes extended the lead with a three from Pryce Sandfort and another from Thelwell as the lead ballooned to 30-23 at the under-eight timeout. Kern cut through the lane and hit a second-chance layup to get back to within five, but Freeman answered on the other end after a foul on Nzeh.
Dilione missed a three and Payton Sandfort hit a three before Josh Dix made a two to push the Iowa lead to ten. Dilione made both of his free throws to put the score at 37-29. A shot clock violation by the Hawkeyes sent the game to the under-four media timeout.
Baldwin was fouled and made both free throws out of the timeout to push the score to 31-37. A skirmish under the net ended with the Nittany Lions possessing the ball, but they couldn’t convert. Dix was fouled by Goodman and both free throws were made. The Hawkeye lead went back to ten after Harding made a layup on the next trip down the floor, prompting Mike Rhoades to call a timeout.
The Nittany Lions came alive out of the timeout with D’Marco Dunn nailing a three and Kern converting a layup in quick succession as the score hit 41-36. Thelwell hit from below the rim before Baldwin scored near the end of the half to push the score to 43-38.
Iowa had one last possession before the end of the half but couldn’t do anything with it as halftime came with the score 43-38.
Iowa opened the second half with a bucket from Dix but Niederhauser was fouled and made the bucket for an and-one. He hit the free throw and the Haweye lead shrunk to 45-41.
After a miss from Payton Sandfort, Nzeh slipped past the defense and slammed home a dunk to cut the Hawkeye lead to three at 47-44. Baldwin missed a three Harding capitalized on the Hawkeye rebound as Iowa went back up by six.
Thelwell hit a three before Dilione was given an and-one after a foul but missed the extra shot and the score sat at 53-46. After Iowa missed two layups, Nzeh tipped on in to get the deficit down to five again. Iowa answered with yet another three from Pryce Sandfort with the score 56-48.
Niederhauser picked up his fourth foul of the night on a rebound with just over twelve minutes to go. The teams traded buckets before Kern was fouled on a made basket as the game went to a media timeout. Kern hit the free throw, but Freeman scored on the other end to push the lead to nine.
The lead stayed at nine as Goodman was fouled but missed the one-and-one try. He hit a layup on the next possession, though, and the score went to 64-57. The Hawkeyes managed another three and the lead ballooned to 10. Dilione took an open look that circled the rim but wouldn’t go as the lead stayed at 67-57.
Goodman went 1-2 from the line out of the media timeout with a little over seven minutes left to go. Freeman made one of his two free throws before the Nittany Lions rattled off five points to bring the score to 68-63. Thelwell hit from three and ended the brief period of momentum for Penn State.
Dilione made a layup, but Pryce Sandfort made his third three of the night to put the Hawkeyes back in front by nine. Hicks broke the Iowa run with a three and sent the game to the final media timeout.
Niederhauser slammed home a dunk out of the timeout to cut the Hawkeye lead to six at 76-70. Kern was fouled by Payton Sandfort and went 1-2 to cut the lead to five.
An Iowa turnover led to a Dilione miss but Niederhauser had a put-back to make it 76-73 with just over a minute left. Baldwin was called for a foul, sending Iowa to the line for a one-and-one chance, which Harding missed. Hicks took the shot for the tie but it wouldn’t fall as play rolled on.
Niederhauser was fouled and knocked down both from the line to get the score to 76-75 with 36 seconds remaining. Payton Sandfort couldn’t hit but neither could Baldwin or Hicks as Baldwin was forced to foul. Thelwell couldn’t hit and Niederhauser came down with the rebound as Rhoades called a timeout.
There was nothing doing on the inbound play, though, and Iowa pulled out the 76-75 win.
Takeaways
- After a big first half with a lot of offense, the defenses stepped up the second half. The Nittany Lions ended 28-57 from the field and the Hawkeyes had a 28-56 clip at the end of the night.
- Penn State went on a 7-0 run to end the game but fell just short down the stretch. Regardless, the Nittany Lions nearly overcame several double-digit deficits in the close loss.
- The Nittany Lions struggled to stop Iowa’s three-point shooting on Friday night. Pryce and Payton Sandfort combined for five threes while the Hawkeyes went 11-23 from beyond the arc.
What’s Next?
The Nittany Lions will take on No. 21 Michigan at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, January 27 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
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