With Penn State trailing 31-27 shortly into the second half, junior guard Ben Luber attempted a jump shot to bring the Nittany Lions back. Miss.
Sophomore forward Geary Claxton rebounded the ball, Cornell committed a foul, then Claxton attempted a jump shot of his own. Miss.
Sophomore forward Brandon Hassell rebounded the ball, Cornell committed a foul, Claxton tried a lay-up. Miss.
Second chances have to be used to provide any benefit, and for much of the Penn State men's basketball team's victory vs. Cornell Saturday, the Lions did not. They took the mulligan, lined up a shot and sliced it right back into the rough.
At the half, Penn State was shooting only 34.4 percent but collected 12 offensive rebounds -- twice as many as Cornell, twice as many second opportunities. Overall, the Lions outrebounded Cornell 24-17 in the first half. Yet at the midpoint, they still trailed 29-27 with wasted chances.
"Rebounding was obviously very, very critical for us. I wish we could convert some of those," Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said. "We just couldn't get it back in the basket."
It wasn't until a 32-15 run in the final 11:36 of the game that DeChellis said Penn State "buckled up and made some plays," when a few consecutive shots gave his team some energy to turn the game around.
Prior to that, it was typical to see a run that included a missed shot and offensive rebound followed up by another missed shot or turnover. Rebounding was not an issue, as Luber said freshman forward Jamelle Cornley and senior Travis Parker played tough underneath. Freshman forward Milos Bogetic came in to contribute to the effort, grabbing eight rebounds in a span of 16 minutes.
"Our big men kinda got frustrated with that 'cause we did get a bunch of rebounds," sophomore guard Mike Walker said. "But they stuck with it in the second half."
That the Lions were able to get through 10 minutes of that second half without trailing by a large margin was perhaps the biggest second chance of them all -- one they eventually took advantage of.
They might be fortunate because Cornell is a good team -- Luber said as much. The Big Red is loaded with upperclassmen and recently took Syracuse to the wire, leading the Orange by three with around five minutes left.
"It wasn't like we thought we had a lay-up today, that wasn't it at all," DeChellis said. "We prepared for three days."
The Big Red, whose style of play leans on success from the perimeter, was able to hang with Syracuse thanks to shooting 47.8 percent from 3-point territory. But they had a 17.6 percent 3-point field goal percentage in Saturday's game, including none in the second half.
Credit for Cornell's offensive struggles goes to Penn State's defense and the Big Red's execution equally. DeChellis said Claxton did a good job defending Cornell forward and tri-captain Lenny Collins, who Cornell coach Steve Donahue said was too much the focus of his team's offense Saturday.
As a result, Cornell was not able to put together a run. Neither team led by more than six points in the first half, when the Big Red had 13-7 and 29-23 advantages. The biggest margin of difference was a 39-31 Cornell lead midway into the second half, at which point the Lions began their run.
DeChellis said the Lions didn't get excited and had enough confidence to knock down some shots during a stretch in which Donahue said somebody was going to grab the game. And it appeared that after all the second chances Penn State didn't take advantage off for 30 minutes of the game, the Lions finally did.
"I kept saying that it's gotta be us," Donahue said. "We have a chance to be a good basketball team, but we're not good enough to do that at Penn State at this point. Penn State had the same opportunity and I thought they did."
