The Penn Stater Magazine

A Happy, Historic Night For Penn State Hoops

January 12, 2011 at 4:43 am Ryan Jones Leave a comment

I asked Talor Battle the first question of Tuesday’s post-game press conference. He seemed to know it was coming. He’s heard variations of it before.

“You know what’s funny?” he said with a smile. “Whenever we win, someone mentions how we lost to Maine.”

Andrew Jones' eight boards were huge; his final rebound led to the game-winning basket.

He can smile now, but at the time, there was nothing funny about it. Three weeks ago, the Nittany Lion basketball team closed out its non-conference schedule with a 10-point home loss to Maine. It was a brutal way to head into conference play, the sort of loss that implied this team might be headed for a dismal winter in Big Ten play.

Instead, the Lions are 3-2 in what might be the best conference in the nation (and 10-6 overall), with wins in the past four days over Michigan State and Illinois. Both were ranked in the top 20 at the time, giving Penn State its first back-to-back wins over ranked teams since 1954 — the year the Nittany Lions made their only trip to the NCAA Final Four.

Penn State still has much to do to get back to the NCAA tournament this season, but these two most recent wins will help. Which led to my question for Battle, the Nittany Lions’ inspiring senior star: What happened to turn that team into this one? Battle figures the loss to Maine itself might have inspired this team’s apparent rebirth.

“Maybe that’s what sparked the fire in us,” he said last night, still smiling. “The last few games, we’ve really played hard for each other.”

That they have. The 57-55 win over the Illini marked the second straight game Penn State outrebounded a bigger, stronger opponent. The Lions endured a poor shooting night, hitting just 34.6 percent from the floor (roughly comparable to my own percentage in a ragged game between local media members on the Jordan Center court a few hours earlier), but they defended intensely, rarely turned the ball over, and — vitally — knocked down all 14 of their free throw attempts.

Coach Ed DeChellis ’82 isn’t exactly sure what’s gotten into his team, either. Meeting the media after the game, he repeated the defense-and-rebounding mantra that is the foundation of every basketball coach’s existence. But he acknowledged that there’s something intangible going on with his team. He can’t put a finger on it, but he’s hardly complaining.

“I don’t know if ‘belief’ is the right word, but they just needed some confidence,” DeChellis said. “We were so up and down in the non-conference season, we could never get any rhythm. Now things are starting to come together.”

The game’s signature moments came 12 minutes apart, the first with about 12 minutes left in the game. Battle, who finished with a game-high 26 points, was standing about 40 feet from the basket late in a Penn State possession when the ball bounced out to him. With only two seconds on the shot clock, he had no choice but to shoot. From 40 feet. He did, a straight-away three-pointer that swished through the net. It was a remarkable shot, and yet for anyone who’s spent the past three and a half seasons watching Battle, it was thoroughly unsurprising.

(Afterward, someone showed Battle a laptop with a photo of him taking the shot. His response? “That’s far, man. Just make sure you say it went in.”)

The other moment came in the final moment, and Battle this time played catalyst. With the game tied at 55 and Penn State holding for the final shot, Battle was dribbling down the clock near halfcourt. Time wound down, Battle built up a head of steam, drove to his left, and drew two defenders who knew — just like everyone else in the building did — that he’d be taking the final shot. He did, releasing a high, off-the-glass layup attempt with about two seconds remaining. The shot missed, but by drawing an extra Illinois defender, Battle had turned his miss into an assist just waiting for someone to finish.

That someone was senior big man Andrew Jones, who was invaluable for a second straight game. Jones finished with 12 points and eight rebounds, the last of which he collected here, slamming home Battle’s miss with .07 seconds left.

Battle said afterward that he was worried Illinois’ 7-foot-tall center, Mike Tisdale, would block his attempt, but he was also mindful that if Tisdale tried and failed, he’d leave Jones open for the rebound. “So I actually shot a hook just to get it on the glass,” Battle said. Then, just as he’d teed up his teammate for the game-winning dunk, Battle set up Jones for the final quote. “I’ll let Drew take it from there.”

A Penn State season that looked lost just three weeks ago has taken on a feel-good air. Lacking a more tangible reason, it’s not hard to imagine that the simple, sentimental fact of these young men playing their hearts out for each other has something to do with it.

Ryan Jones, senior editor

Entry filed under: Nittany Lion basketball. Tags: 1954, Andrew Jones, Ed DeChellis, Illinois, Maine, Michigan State, Mike Tisdale, Talor Battle.