Penn State basketball: Three takeaways from Lions win over St. Francis Brooklyn
Penn State Nittany Lions basketball turned 40 points in the paint into a relatively comfortable 74-59 win over St. Francis Brooklyn on Thursday night.
Let’s dive into three takeaways from the game.
Penn State turns in efficient offensive performance
For only the third time in the last two seasons, Penn State finished a game with a field goal success rate above 50 percent.
The Nittany Lions shot 53.1 percent on the night, led by a 10-13 effort from Sam Sessoms, who finished with 26 points.
Part of that efficiency, Sessoms and John Harrar explained, came from the St. Francis press.
The Terriers were aggressive in their on-ball defense, creating driving lanes for the Nittany Lions to exploit. Sessoms lived at the rim, and Harrar and fellow big man Jalanni White posted efficient numbers, too. That duo combined for 22 points while missing just two shots collectively.
“When we execute and know that they’re going to pressure us, they’re giving us a layup,” Harrar said. “So I think that’s where the efficiency comes from.”
Lions struggle with ball security again
Penn State reached double digit turnovers for the second consecutive game, this time giving it away on 15 occasions.
The full-court pressure deployed by St. Francis played a role in that.
In a portion of practice open to the media on Tuesday, the Nittany Lions spent a good deal of time drilling their press break — Shrewsberry hadn’t been pleased with the way his team dealt with pressure against UMass.
He felt similarly about Thursday night’s effort, saying his team didn’t “value the basketball.”
“Our goal is 10 turnovers or less,” Shrewsberry said. “If you come and watch us practice, we do stuff every day, passing and catching. You would think you’re at an elementary school practice…That’s where we need to get better.
“We worked against the press for two straight days, and, you know, we still weren’t great at it. So we’ll get to back to work at it again on Friday. Even if Cornell doesn’t press, we’re going to work against the press, because we need to get better at it.”
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Jalanni White’s impact grows
Perhaps the Nittany Lions weren’t expecting much out of Canisius transfer big man Jalanni White. He’d averaged fewer than four points per game for the Golden Eagles last season, along with 2.2 rebounds. It’s hardly an inspiring stat line.
Asked to fill major minutes for the Nittany Lions in the absence of injured forward Greg Lee, White’s impact has been anything but insignificant.
White earned a start for Penn State alongside Harrar Thursday night. He finished the game with eight points on 4-5 shooting, four offensive rebounds — seven total — and a pair of assists.
“Jalanni’s out there stealing my offensive rebounds,” Harrar joked after the game.
White fouled out in the second half, capping his night at 16 minutes. Shrewsberry said postgame that the Nittany Lions would like to get him on the floor even more.
Shrewsberry is hoping that Harrar and White can continue to improve their rapport with one another when they’re on the floor together.
“They haven’t had much practice time together, just based on circumstances,” Shrewsberry said. “It was a little clunky in terms of how they played offensively…The more time they can get together, I think they’ll start to gel a little bit.”
