Penn State was coming off a huge win over Texas A&M where Andrew Funk was red-hot.
They looked to carry that into their match-up with number 2 Penn State, but it simply didn’t happen.
Myles Dread would breath life into the team, hitting two three’s early and another pair late but he got no help from long range.
Andrew Funk and Seth Lundy, the team’s primary shooters, combined to go 4/16 from the three. Funk actually had more baskets from the field than he did from three-point range and that’s uncommon.
The rest of the team isn’t afraid to shoot, but they were cold as they took a combined five additional shots from beyond the arc and missed every single one. Take Dread out of the equation and the team shot a terrible 4/21 (19%) from outside.
There was solid shooting from field goal range at 41.7% that helped to keep the game within striking distance, lead by Cam Wynter’s 16 points. That just isn’t Penn State’s strong suit, however, and it couldn’t make up for their bad night from long range.
On the defensive end, the team appeared to have no answers for Dylan Disu.
Disu averaged 8.5 points and 4.3 rebounds per game this season, but put up a season high 28 points on 70% shooting and added 10 rebounds (he had one game this season with 11).
Although it looked to be a winnable game for large stretches, the end result for the Nittany Lions was a disappointing 71-66 loss to end their season in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
It will be the last time that the likes of Jalen Pickett, Andrew Funk, Cam Wynter, Myles Dread and Michael Henn will be suiting up for Penn State basketball as they are all out of eligibility.
Seth Lundy is also a senior and this could be his last game for PSU; he could technically choose to return for another season as a result of the COVID year.
As a result of the loss, Penn State Athletics and Micah Shrewsberry will need to get to work on the offseason.
Penn State will need to get to signing Shrewsberry to a long-term contract and keep programs looking to poach their head coach (like Georgetown and Notre Dame). Shrewsberry will have to turn his attention to locking up additional players for his roster and that could come in the form of rookies and transfers as the program has been active in both areas within the past month or so.
