Injured Stephens' presence missed in cager's NIT loss

NEW YORK -- It was a career night for Gyasi Cline-Heard.

The 6-foot-7 freshman power forward set career highs in points (14), minutes (24) and field goals attempted (8). He also pulled down five rebounds.

Yet, as he sat in the locker room after Penn State's National Invitation Tournament loss last Thursday to Minnesota, he just stared at the floor. He didn't feel like smiling.

He didn't want to take pride in his brand new career highs.

He just wanted to be alone.

He also wanted to prove he could step in to a role left vacant by Jarrett Stephens, who suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury in last Tuesday night's semifinal game against Georgia. What helped Cline-Heard, though, was a little advice from his older teammate.

"Jarrett helped me a lot," Cline-Heard said. "He told me to relax and play my game."

But the Nittany Lions needed more than Cline-Heard to play his game. They needed to set screens to free up Pete Lisicky. Without a good screen, Lisicky is lucky to even see the basket, and that's why the Lions missed Stephens.

"I don't like to dwell on that," said Lion coach Jerry Dunn. "I thought our guys did a solid job trying to make up for the loss of Jarrett. We had some situations where we had some good looks at the basket inside, and we just couldn't get it to go down. I thought that Gyasi Cline-Heard did a real fine job as did Carl Jackson."

Jackson and Cline-Heard scored a combined 18 points and together grabbed nine rebounds. Those numbers are pretty close to Stephens' season numbers.

"I'm not one to make excuses, but I thought Gyasi did a good job," said point guard Joe Crispin. "You can't blame it on him. We just didn't have the same rhythm we've had all season."

That lack of rhythm affected the team, especially Lisicky, who was 3 of 12 from the field.

"I think Jarrett does some different things," Lisicky said." Jarrett may have made a difference. It would have helped having an extra body in there. I know I was fatigued."

Small forward Titus Ivory, Stephens' frontcourt mate, said it didn't matter who played power forward, Stephens was still missed.

"He's a big part of our team," Ivory said." "Rebounding and points wise, he's huge. It was a powerful blow to the team, but we showed we could battle back in a big game like we did against Georgia."

Minnesota coach Clem Haskins thought at one point when Penn State pulled to within six with a minute and 35 seconds left, the Lions would repeat their performance against the Bulldogs.

Yet he wasn't surprised the Lions were able to get close without Stephens.

"They played outstanding," Haskins said. "Coach Dunn made some fine adjustments. Stephens has been a thorn in our side all year, but I think their guys stepped their games up a lot tonight. They should be commended."