Purdue next challenge for cagers

By CRAIG KACKENMEISTER
Collegian Staff Writer

It is the same old story for the Penn State men's basketball team.

The Nittany Lions (10-13, 2-10 Big Ten) are coming off another last-second loss, the latest a 69-63 setback to Minnesota Wednesday at The Bryce Jordan Center. In search of just their third conference win of the season, the Lions take to the road for a 2 p.m. contest tomorrow at West Lafayette, Ind. against No. 17 Purdue (18-7, 6-6).

Once again, it was another top conference player who put the Lions away Wednesday. Golden Gophers guard and Big Ten leading scorer Quincy Lewis hit a fall-away 3-pointer to snap Minnesota's three-game losing streak.

Purdue is coming off a hard 82-69 loss to Michigan State Tuesday night that left a sour taste in Boilermakers coach Gene Keady's mouth.

"I don't deal with losses very well, I'm the world's worst loser," Keady said. "A good loser is a consistent loser, it's one of those situations you fight through. Like you tell the kids about class, you've got to study over and over. It's a good attitude to pass on to everyone."

Purdue's Jaraan Cornell has been keeping the Boilermakers alive in the last couple of games. The junior guard from South Bend, Ind. has been on a scoring spree of late. In the past two games he scored 51 points (30 against Illinois and 21 against Michigan State).

Keady said Cornell has been shooting a little better, but sometimes gets frustrated with presses.

While Cornell has been hot, Keady is concerned about the damage Penn State can do to his team's NCAA Tournament aspirations.

One of the Boilermakers' top priorities will be to stop Lions center Calvin Booth. He carried Penn State against Minnesota, scoring a team-high 21 points against Gophers freshman center Joel Pryzbilla. Keady admitted that Booth has been a problem for his team in the past.

"We can't stop Booth," Keady said. "We never have. If we could we would be pretty good."

One of the problems the Lions had against Minnesota was not getting shots to fall in the final stretch of the second half to put the Gophers away.

The Lions had a 38-33 lead coming out of halftime, but a 7-0 Minnesota run put it right back in the game.

"We run stuff to get guys shots and the ball doesn't go in the hole and you can't run away," Dunn said. "What you do is you end up spending more time on the defensive end. We had some good looks at the basket and the ball just didn't go in."

The Lions currently are in last place in the conference and their only chance to get an NCAA Tournament bid is to run the table in the Big Ten Tournament in Chicago.

Keady feels the Lions have as good a chance as any other team in the conference to make a run at the automatic bid to the field of 64.

"(Penn State) has good guards, a good center and a good supporting cast," Keady said. "They've had tough breaks this year, but they can break out and beat anyone in the league, and they can win the Big Ten Tournament."