Trey sinks Iowa

By ROB AMEN
Collegian Sports Writer

The unthinkable became reality for the men's basketball team last night.

With the game tied at 64 and the clock winding down, Penn State freshman guard Pete Lisicky cooly drained an NBA-range three-point bomb to propel the Nittany Lions to a heartstopping 67-64 victory over Iowa.

Lisicky's shot puts Penn State (20-10) into the National Invitation Tournament semifinals at Madison Square Garden for a matchup with Marquette Monday night. Tickets are on sale at 8:30 a.m. this morning at the Penn State Ticket Office, and will be sold from 1 to 8 p.m. tomorrow and Sunday.

Moments before Lisicky's shot, Iowa forward Jess Settles sank two free throws to tie the game at 64. But Lion point guard Dan Earl -- who ended the night with three points, four rebounds and a whopping 13 assists -- pushed the ball up court and found Lisicky on the elbow for the game-winning bucket.

"Danny got the ball up through the pressure," Lisicky said afterward in a radio interviewon 1450 WMAJ-AM, "and they left me open. I got my legs into it and it went down . . . It all came together on that last shot."

Lisicky may have hit the game-winning shot, but it was Earl's stubborn floor game, coupled with big nights from a couple of forwards -- junior Rahsaan Carlton and senior Greg Bartram -- that put Penn State on top.

Carlton finished with 13 points and seven rebounds, while Bartram ended the game with eight points and six rebounds. But Earl was the deciding factor.

The sophomore directed the Lion offense and disected the Hawkeye full-court pressure, either by finding the open man or dribbling through it.

"He's just special," Penn State Coach Bruce Parkhill said, adding how well Earl handled the press. "He did a terrific job."

But with its swarming defensive pressure, it looked as if Iowa (21-12) would be the team to finally knock off the stubborn Penn State, which rallied unexpectedly in its two previous games.

Iowa jumped out to a 13-2 lead early in the first half and held an 18-5 advantage before Penn State made a 12-0 run to pull within a point, 18-17.

The remainder of the half was a see-saw affair, with each team exchanging buckets. The Hawkeye pressure irritated the Lion offense, but Penn State managed to pull even at 28 with two minutes remaining in the first half. Iowa held a 34-31 lead at half despite being outrebounded, 27-17.

"We just felt like we were really being challenged physically," Parkhill said. "We've been challenged a lot the last two weeks."

But Penn State answered the challenge in the second half, due in large part to Carlton. The 6-foot-6 swingman came out on fire, hitting a jumper that gave the Lions their first lead of the night, 35-34, and finished an alley-oop with a thunderous dunk after Earl made a pin-point pass from the top of the key.

Penn State opened a 56-45 lead with 8-minutes, 31-seconds to play after center John Amaechi -- who finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds -- completed a three-point play, coupled with a Donovan Williams 18 footer. The Lions upped the lead to 61-47 before Iowa ignited a run.

The Hawkeyes -- led by point guard Andre Woolridge's 28 points -- pulled to 61-54 on a Settles' put-back from a missed trey. After Penn State extended the lead to 64-54, Iowa made an 8-0 run to close the gap to 64-62 with 20 seconds remaining, setting up the final-second dramatics.

However, a key to the Lions victory was the defense applied to Hawkeye three-point specialist Chris Kingsbury, who fouled out with three minutes remaining. Kingsbury, who averages 19 points per game, managed just four against the Lion defense before fouling out.