Road games continue to be one long, dreary, never-ending nightmare for the Wildcats, who on Saturday found yet another way to lose.
Penn State (7-11, 1-4 Big Ten) became the latest squad to take advantage of Northwestern’s road woes with a 65-62 win in front of 8,207 at the Bryce Jordan Center.
NU center Mike Thompson did not make the trip to State College, Pa., having been suspended last week for violating a team policy for class attendance.
The Nittany Lions capitalized on the big man’s absence by dominating the boards, grabbing 42 rebounds, including 15 on the offensive end.
Penn State forward Aaron Johnson single-handedly outrebounded the Cats 21-17.
“That’s ridiculous,” guard Mohamed Hachad said. “You can’t win if one guy outrebounds your entire team.”
NU junior Vedran Vukusic, after scoring a team-high 17 points, left the game with a left shoulder injury with more than eight minutes to play in the second half. On Sunday, Vukusic said his shoulder was “pretty good” but still sore, and that he would get it examined.
Vukusic redshirted what would have been his sophomore season after an injury to his right shoulder required surgery.
On Saturday, the Nittany Lions weathered a 14-4 NU run during the final four minutes that saw a 59-48 margin cut to 63-62 with three seconds left. Trailing 63-60 with seven seconds to go, NU guard Michael Jenkins stole an inbound pass and opted to drive in for a layup instead of pulling out for a potential game-tying 3-pointer. Jenkins missed, but forward Davor Duvancic tipped it in.
Penn State forward Travis Parker hit two free throws with two seconds left and the Nittany Lions stole a desperation inbound pass from Duvancic to seal the game.
It the Nittany Lions first Big Ten win since Jan. 28, 2004, when they beat the Cats 63-61 in overtime. That loss, like this year’s, followed an NU bye week.
“It was a game we had to win, but we didn’t play with the urgency necessary to win on the road,” NU coach Bill Carmody said.
The Cats (8-9, 1-4) flashed a sense of that urgency in the game’s final two minutes, when center Vince Scott’s fourth 3-pointer brought the Cats to within six, 60-54. Filling in for Thompson, Scott set career highs for minutes played (33) and points scored (14), and went 5 for 5 from the field.
After an NU timeout, Duvancic converted consecutive layups to cut the deficit to two. But that’s when an old problem returned — the team could not get a defensive stop when it needed one.
With a 10-second differential between the game clock and shot clock, Penn State’s Mike Walker nailed his fifth 3-pointer to give the Nittany Lions a 63-58 advantage.
NU’s perimeter defense was shaky all afternoon. Freshman Danny Morrissey hit four 3-pointers and the team made a season-high 14, compared to just nine 2-point field goals.
“We knew (Walker and Morrissey) were good shooters, but they’re freshmen,” Scott said. “We didn’t know if they’d be shaky.
“We didn’t know they would step up the way they did and come through for their team.”
The Cats had one surge left. They connected on an inbound play when Duvancic threw a half-court lob pass to Mohamed Hachad, who scored despite appearing to get pushed by Penn State’s Johnson.
That set up Jenkins’ steal and Duvancic’s tip-in. Suddenly, the no-call on Hachad’s basket seemed critical.
“I wasn’t in the mood to argue or talk to the refs about it, but I was definitely fouled,” Hachad said. “They didn’t call it, I don’t know what to say … nothing you can do about it now.”
The Cats have lost seven straight road games, dating back to Feb. 11, 2004, when they beat Purdue 40-39.
Reach Anthony Tao at [email protected].
