Penn State men's basketball coach Jerry Dunn said that he was going to make changes, and he did. The Nittany Lions' starting lineup included just one player who started in the first three games of the season, Ndu Egekeze.
But the result remained the same.
Clemson (3-0) jumped out early, going on an 8-0 run, as the Lions didn't score in the first 6:14 seconds of the game. The Tigers never looked back as it defeated Penn State (0-4), 79-70, last night at the Anderson Civic Center in South Carolina as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
The loss drops Penn State to its worse start since 1931.
The Lions fought hard and battled the Tigers throughout the second half, and cut the 13-point halftime deficit to nine early in the second half on the strength of a pair of three-pointers by DeForrest Riley, but could not get closer than eight. Penn State went on a 7-2 run to close out the first half.
Penn State freshmen stepped up against the Tigers and scored 30 points.
Riley, who started the first game of his career, tallied 18 points and connected on 6-of-9 shots from behind the arc, two assists and a blocked shot. Dunn said that he has told Riley for the past week to take the open shots and it will fall, and last night he made the open shots.
"I knew I had to be more aggressive," said Riley on WMAJ radio. "It helps a great deal when you get the first one to fall."
Fellow freshman Robert Summers scored 10 points, grabbed six rebounds, had a steal and made 4-for-6 from the field off the bench for Penn State.
Both Riley and Summers were overshadowed by the play of Clemson's point guard Edward Scott, who netted 25 points had seven assists and had only one turnover in going the distance.
Clemson shot 51 percent from the field for the game, becoming the third team to shoot over 50 percent against the Lions in four games. The one area where the Tigers struggled was at the charity stripe where they made only 25-of-46.
Even with the Tigers' hot shooting, Dunn said he was pleased with the effort he saw in the game and knows that his squad will win some games this season.
"The guys who came off the bench played with some real determination out there," he said.
Dunn benched both senior Brandon Watkins and junior Sharif Chambliss. Watkins responded by scoring the first six points for the Lions, and Chambliss finished with 15 points.
Riley said that team played at a high level of play for the first time this season last night.
"The intensity level was there and was higher this game," Riley said. "We wasted three games, and if we played like tonight then, now we wouldn't be 0-4."
