Penn State basketball: Three takeaways from Lions win over Cornell

On3 imageby:David Eckert11/22/21

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Penn State basketball found itself trailing Cornell by as many as 10 points in the first half, but responded to claim an 85-74 win to move to 3-1 on the season.

Let’s get into three takeaways from the game.

Lions rescued by hot shooting duo

Penn State’s 15 3-pointers tied a single-game school record, and the Nittany Lions needed every one of them.

Sam Sessoms and Seth Lundy provided the majority of the punch. Sessoms connected on six of his seven attempts from beyond the arc, including triples on four consecutive Penn State possessions in the first half as the Nittany Lions bounced back from a 10-point deficit.

Lundy connected on five of his eight threes on his way to a game-high 23 points.

Penn State generated some solid looks from beyond the arc, but it benefitted from hitting some contested shots, too. Sessoms accounted for a handful of those.

“I was just feelin’ it, to be honest,” Sessoms said. “When I shoot ’em I’ll make ’em. It’s just that I’m so confident beating my man off the dribble. A lot of my teammates get mad because I pass up easy ones.”

Sessoms said he noticed the Cornell defense dropping off to prevent the dribble drive.

“I seen one drop, and I’m like, just keep shooting until you miss it,” he said. “That was my mentality.”

As a team, the Nittany Lions attempted 34 3-point shots on Monday night. They hadn’t shot more than 20 in a single game under Micah Shrewsberry.

The reason for the aggressiveness from beyond the arc, Shrewsberry said, was Cornell’s help defense. The Big Red tend to swarm the ball when there is dribble penetration, leaving open men on the perimeter.

Big Red give Nittany Lions problems on the glass

Between John Harrar and Jalanni White, the Nittany Lions have benefitted from a distinct offensive rebounding advantage to this point in the season.

That was not the case on Monday.

Cornell collected 13 offensive boards to Penn State’s six. That led to 21 second-chance points compared to seven for the Nittany Lions.

The Big Red didn’t boast a particularly physical presence in the paint — nothing like what Penn State will face when Big Ten play begins, anyway.

In Shrewsberry’s mind, the issue was partially schematic. Cornell took 32 triples of its own. The Nittany Lions wanted to force the visitors into those outside shots based on what they’d seen on film, but the missed threes created awkward rebounds for Penn State to handle, Shrewsberry explained.

RELATED: Penn State basketball found itself trailing Cornell by as many as 10 points in the first half, but responded to claim an 85-74 win to move to 3-1 on the season.

“I think for us it’s a matter of just cleaning up, boxing out, and stepping to your man,” he said.

“When we’re in practice, we always talk about stepping to your man when the shot goes up. We get in a bad habit every once in a while where the shot goes up, we turn and we go towards the basket. When it’s a long three, it’s going to bounce over the top of your head. But if you step to your man every single time, you’re eating up that space. Now the ball is coming right to you.”

Penn State’s cohesiveness still a work in progress

There was one instance in the first half of Monday’s game that illustrated what the new-look Nittany Lions are dealing with as they try to learn one another’s tendencies — and master Shrewsberry’s offense, which will take time.

Lundy held the ball near the right elbow, looking to make a pass to transfer guard Jaheam Cornwall. Cornwall flashed to the wing. Lundy had expected him to go to the corner, and sent the ball there instead.

It trickled out of bounds for one of 14 Penn State turnovers. The Big Red scored 20 points off those turnovers, using the extra possessions it got from the takeaways and the offensive rebounds to put a scare into the Nittany Lions.

Certainly, not all of those turnovers are attributable to chemistry. Shrewsberry wants his team to value the basketball and doesn’t necessarily feel as though Penn State is succeeding in that at the moment.

But it’s clear that there’s a way to go cohesion-wise. Nobody is impacted by this more than guard Jalen Pickett. Renowned for his passing ability, Pickett flashed moments of brilliance in this game. Early in the first half, he expertly created space for a Harrar dunk, using a nice layoff to get the ball to Penn State’s big man.

There were moments that showcased room for improvement, too. Pickett acknowledged afterward that he still has a way to go when it comes to learning his teammates.

“I’m still getting pretty comfortable with the team,” he said. “We’ve tried a couple different lineups and people get hurt and get down, so we’re still working on that cohesiveness. Hopefully around January and December when we get everybody healthy, we’ll really get that consistency.”

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