Penn State Basketball fell to Texas A&M in the quarterfinals of the ESPN Events Invitational, 89-77.
In a game much closer than the final score appeared, the Nittany Lions battled the 12th ranked Aggies the entire game. Texas A&M’s strength underneath was just too strong for the Nittany Lions.
Penn State was outrebounded 33-20(!), with the Aggies getting 12 offensive rebounds. Download depth behind Qudus Wahab (5 rebounds) was an issue, with only Puff Johnson, who came off the bench, finishing with more than 2 rebounds.
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Penn State Basketball finished shooting just 33% from beyond the arc. Zack Hicks was a disappointing 1-6 and only Ace Baldwin made more than one three pointer. Penn State only forced 10 Texas A&M turnovers (despite only giving it up 9 times themselves). The guard defense was exposed over and over with backdoor cuts, which was a surprising and unfortunate development for this strong defensive team. Penn State plays the loser of Butler and Florida Atlantic tomorrow at 1:30 pm.
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NittanyCentral is his second reporting job following the Men's Basketball program. He co-founded and co-hosts the Shots Gotta Fall - The Penn State Basketball Podcast (the premiere, the best, the only) with Steve Travis.
Smith's most proud moment covering the team was seeing the national No. 9 ranking during Pat Chambers' last year. His most embarrassing moment was spending almost a thousand dollars to travel 2,000 miles in 46 hours to watch the Nittany Lions lose to Temple in the 2011 NCAA Tournament (screw you Juan Fernandez).