Penn out-Battled by Nittany Lions

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — On a night when Penn State celebrated its 2009 NIT championship, Penn witnessed that its in-state rivals might have even more success this year.

If the Nittany Lions do have a better year, it probably will be thanks to standout Talor Battle. The junior point guard lit up the Quakers, scoring 27 points to go along with 10 rebounds and four assists en route to Penn State’s 70-55 victory Friday night in State College, Pa.

But the Quakers didn’t help themselves out either, shooting only 37.5 percent and committing fouls that got numerous key players into foul trouble early on.

“If you’re playing a team like Penn State, if you’re the University of Pennsylvania, all those small things, the things that you can control, you have to be successful in those areas,” coach Glen Miller said. “Although we did some good things, for us to take it down to the wire, we had to do better in those areas.”

Those areas, Miller mentioned, included not committing turnovers, taking smart shots and playing disciplined defense.

The Quakers started out strong, feeding the hot hand of junior Tyler Bernardini. He scored Penn’s first 10 points, keeping pace with the Nittany Lions’ entire squad. But fouls kept him on the bench for most of the rest of the game, as he played only 17 minutes and scored just two points after that opening run.

“I would have liked to continue that for most of the half,” Bernardini said. “I think that’s about all I got to play was the first five minutes, so that’s kinda frustrating.

“I just got to be a little more disciplined. I can’t get in foul trouble, I can’t foul like that and I just need to be a little smarter for the benefit of the whole team.”

Miller went with a starting lineup of juniors Bernardini and Jack Eggleston, sophomore Zack Rosen and seniors Darren Smith and Andreas Schreiber. But Schreiber, too, struggled with fouls, playing only nine minutes and tallying just four points and two rebounds.

The slack was picked up impressively by the frontcourt, especially Eggleston, junior Conor Turley and sophomore Mike Howlett. Eggleston led the Quakers in scoring with 13 points, prompting Miller to highlight his team’s interior play. Penn’s big men kept Penn State’s in foul trouble all night, as forwards Andrew Jones and Andrew Ott both fouled out.

Against Miller’s wishes, however, Penn continued to unsuccessfully take outside shots instead of feeding the ball inside. Poor shooting performances from Rosen (2-for-8 including 2-for-6 from three-point range) and Smith (1-for-11, 0-for-7), doomed the Quakers.

“Where we had success [in the first half] was getting the ball either off the cut into the low post or just off a post up,” Miller said. “We have some guys who can hit the three but our success offensively was getting the ball inside.”

Penn State’s success, however, was due almost entirely to Battle. He sparked a 12-4 run at the end of the first half with an and-1 layup, and kept it going with two assists and three rebounds. That span turned a 25-24 deficit into a 36-29 halftime lead from which the Nittany Lions never looked back.

Tonight, the Quakers open Big Five play against yet another one of the nation’s top point guards, as they travel to No. 5 Villanova, which is led by senior Scottie Reynolds. But even after letting up so many points to Battle, the Quakers aren’t fretting any more about Reynolds.

“I think each game’s different,” Bernardini said “But Scottie Reynolds is a very good player. But hopefully he’s missing shots and not hitting them like Talor was [Friday].”

Reynolds is far from the Wildcats’ only weapon, however, as they return nine players from last year’s Final Four squad. They will, however, be missing senior guard Reggie Redding, who was suspended by the school for the fall semester due to possession of a small amount of marijuana.

Though the Quakers have lost six straight to Villanova, the players are confident that if they do the little things right, they can compete with the Wildcats. A win against Villanova, though, would be the Quakers first against a ranked opponent in 24 games, since a 1998 victory over No. 6 Temple.

The major point to be learned from the Penn State game, however, is the importance of staying out of foul trouble.

“We’re gonna approach this game, we’re gonna come out and defend,” Rosen said. “We were in big time foul trouble tonight. … We don’t run that deep. We can’t afford to be in that kind of foul trouble.”

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