PHILADELPHIA, Pa. --- Stanley Pringle brought the ball up with the clock winding down and Penn State trailing by three.
As the guard signaled for "Wing Through" --- a play designed for Danny Morrissey and Talor Battle to cross on the baseline and free each other up for an open three --- he saw Rhode Island defenders all over the potential shooters, forcing him to jack up a deep three that clanked off the rim with 2.6 seconds left, sealing the Nittany Lions' fate in their 77-72 loss to Rhode Island Friday night at the Palestra in Philadelphia.
"The ball was kind of slippery," Pringle said. "So when I released I felt it was slippery. It rattled out."
The miss capped off an unfamiliar night for the Lions, who met their first real test of the season on the same court they used to run host Penn out of the gym just three nights earlier.
The fast-paced, structured-chaos that was Penn State's offense through the season's first five games failed to surface, faltering in the face of an athletic Rhode Island defense that suffocated ball-handlers and swatted big men on the block.
Hot-shooting guards Pringle and Battle, who seemed to score at will thus far in the season, combined to shoot 7-for-25 on the night.
With the Lions trailing by a small margin for much of the game and unable to connect from the perimeter, they turned to Jamelle Cornley down low.
Despite being harassed all night by Delroy James, Keith Cothran and Kahiem Seawright --- none of whom stands shorter than 6-8 or weighs less than 220 pounds --- the Penn State senior captain persisted, connecting for 23 points on 11-for-20 shooting and giving the Lions a fighting chance throughout.
"I've been doing it for so long that it doesn't really matter anymore," the generously listed 6-5 Cornley said of going up against bigger defenders. "I know exactly what I wanna do. I'll sacrifice a blocked shot here and there, but at the same time, it's something that I'm used to.
"It's harder to play against people who are your size."
The Lions made a valiant comeback in the game's waning minutes after trailing by as many as 10 with less than six minutes to go.
But as the "We Are" chants arose from the traveling Penn State fans in the tiny gym, the Lions began to struggle from the charity stripe. Their Achilles' heel from a season ago resurfaced in the game's final two minutes, where three of their four misses took place.
That came back to haunt them, as they found themselves down 75-72 with 12.6 seconds left on the decisive possession.
"It just sucks because I know that we could have beat 'em," Cornley said.
The Lions will now play Saturday night at 6:30 in the consolation game of the Philly Hoop Group Classic against the loser of the Villanova/Towson game that followed theirs.
Penn State coach Ed DeChellis, who used just seven players Friday, said he'll lengthen the rotation if need be for the next game.
"We can play some more guys [Saturday] night if we have to," he said. "We felt like, defensively, we had the guys on the floor that we wanted to have on the floor."
