MSU falls to Penn State 72-68, loses back-to-back home games

All season long, Kalin Lucas has thrived under the pressure of late game situations. So with seven seconds left and his team trailing Penn State by two, he knew it was his shot to take.

The sophomore guard dribbled the ball up the court, shimmied off a defender and pulled up from inside the arc.

“I wanted to try to drive and just try to create,” said Lucas, who moments earlier had missed a free throw that would have tied the game. “But the way they played it, they covered it pretty well. Then I thought I had the pull-up and I just missed.”

Lucas scored 23 points, but it was his misses that made the difference Sunday, as Penn State staved off a furious late-game surge to upset No. 9 MSU 72-68 at Breslin Center.

“The game wasn’t won or lost on Kalin Lucas’ free throw, it was won or lost when we were seven up and we just decided not to guard,” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. “I thought the only guy that really guarded today was Kalin.”

The loss marked the first time since December 1997 that the Spartans (17-4 overall, 7-2 Big Ten) dropped back-to-back home games. The skid comes during a year when MSU set a school record by winning their first five conference road games.

After the game, the players and assistant coaches had a closed team meeting to discuss their recent struggles at Breslin while Izzo was attending the postgame press conference.

“We’re not taking care of our home court,” said senior guard Travis Walton, who finished with two points. “When you lose games at home and win them on the road, it’s a problem.”

Talor Battle finished with a career-high 29 points for the Nittany Lions in a contest that at times was eerily reminiscent of the Spartans’ home loss to Northwestern.

Just like the Wildcats did when they beat MSU 70-63 on Jan. 21, Penn State erased an early deficit by hitting an endless chain of 3-pointers — including some that were launched from well beyond the arc.

Battle was especially lethal from deep, finishing 6-of-12 from long range. Most of his shots came during crucial moments in the game.

As a team, Penn State finished 10-of-20 from long-range and shot 56.3 percent from the field, while MSU shot 5-of-20 from deep and 42.6 percent for the game.

“I’ve never seen two losses with banked-in threes, 35-foot threes,” Izzo said. “I can’t really condemn those as not guarding, but we let them get hot there at the seven-minute mark of the first half and that changed the whole game.”

Starting for the third straight game, sophomore guard Durrell Summers — who scored nine points on 4-of-12 shooting — gave MSU a 12-point advantage when he zipped through the air and converted on an and-1 layup with 6:11 to go. But that’s when Penn State began to mount its comeback.

Battle and forward Jamelle Cornley (16 points) combined to hit three consecutive treys that sliced MSU’s lead to four points, 29-25, with 4:37 to go in the half. Lucas momentarily stopped the bleeding with a pair of jump shots, but Penn State continued to make mincemeat of the Spartans’ defense.

Cornley made an unimpeded dunk, Battle hit an uncontested layup, and Cammeron Woodyard hit a 3-pointer in front of MSU’s bench to bring Penn State within two.

After MSU senior forward Marquise Gray got called for traveling, Battle milked the clock down to seven seconds and hit his fourth triple of the afternoon to give Penn State a 38-37 halftime lead.

“He is a big-game player; he loves the atmosphere,” Penn State head coach Ed DeChellis said of Battle. “He wanted the ball and he got it going a little bit and we kept letting him have the ball.”

Cornley’s jumper extended Penn State’s lead to five in the opening minutes of the half, but he got called for a technical foul while racing back on defense that tilted the momentum back to MSU.

Lucas, who was held to six points in the first half, exploded for nine points during the first five minutes of the second period, making both technical free-throws, a layup and an off-balance 3-pointer that gave MSU a 49-47 lead.

Penn State, though, responded once again with an 11-0 run in less than three minutes. Battle capped the spurt with his sixth 3-pointer of the game that have his team a 59-49 lead midway through the second half.

The Spartans look to bounce back Wednesday against No. 24 Minnesota. Tip-off is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. at Breslin Center.