Penn State second-half burst sends Nittany Lions past Seahawks, 74-54

Micah Shrewsberry was convinced his Penn State team was in for a challenge against Wagner.

Hosting the Seahawks Wednesday night at the Bryce Jordan Center, the Nittany Lions looked to bounce back from two straight losses. First falling to Miami, then Ohio State, the Penn State head coach foresaw a rock fight to avoid a third. 

“I thought it was gonna be a grind-it-out game. I really did. All week I was concerned about this game,” Shrewsberry said. “The Ohio State game took a lot out of us. I knew how hard these guys were going to play and what they were going to do.”

Pulling away for a second-half romp, the Nittany Lions did the dictating.

Led by a balanced scoring attack, Penn State notched a 74-54 win in front of 7,499 fans at the BJC. The win improved the Nittany Lions to 5-4 on the season with a trip to No. 19 Michigan State up next Saturday (2 p.m., BTN). 

“That’s hats off to our guys for how well they played,” Shrewsberry said. “Our guys took some things from film… how we can attack them, and they did it. It helps in our confidence. We start to see it. 

“We told our guys… the most interesting things happen just on the other side of your comfort zone. I felt like we have to get out of our comfort zone a little bit and try some things. Go out on faith and try some things and I thought they did that.”

For the first 20 minutes, that wasn’t the case.

Derailed by turnovers against a Wagner zone and full-court trap, the Nittany Lions found themselves leading throughout but unable to pull away. Instead, a lead that grew to as many as seven points off a Jalen Pickett 3-pointer evaporated, ultimately heading to the half with a 32-27 advantage.

Trading jabs out of the break, the Nittany Lions produced a pair of scoring runs sparked by turnover creation and, maybe more important, timely made shots. Sam Sessoms (16 points) coming off the bench, playing off Jalanni White (8 pts), plus contributions from Seth Lundy (10 pts), John Harrar (12 pts), and Myles Dread (9 pts) all found the bottom of the net.

By the end of six minutes spanning the middle of the second half, the Nittany Lions’ 40-35 lead exploded to 62-39 with 8:37 remaining.

Even so, Shrewsberry acknowledged an unease lurking beneath an undeniably strong offensive performance. Penn State’s highest-scoring output since a Nov. 22 win over Cornell, the head coach was prepared to see a late burst from the visitors.

“You have to compete at a really, really high level every single night against the good teams, which, in our league, they’re all good teams. A game like this helps us because you can’t take your foot off the gas,” Shrewsberry said. “Some of the guys that don’t play very much, I wanted to get them in earlier. But I never felt comfortable. We’re up 20 with two minutes left and I didn’t feel comfortable. 

“Every possession is magnified. Every defensive rebound is magnified. And when you have to focus like that, when you have to compete like that for 40 minutes, that’s how you have to play to beat good people. And we’re having to play like that.”

Determined to convert the win into momentum moving forward, Penn State will get its next opportunity to prove as much this weekend.