Penn State basketball: Mike Rhoades credits Lions’ effort vs. nation’s top team

Penn State basketball was soundly defeated Saturday at the hands of the top-ranked Purdue Boilermakers. The blowout 95-78 loss was unsurprising given the vastly different states of the Nittany Lions and Purdue basketball programs. But after the game, first-year head coach Mike Rhoades looked for the positives in his team’s effort while also discussing the tremendous challenge posed by reigning National Player of the Year Zach Edey and the Boilermakers’ offense.

Mike Rhoades: Nittany Lions “battled” in blowout loss to Purdue

Penn State basketball’s 17-point loss Saturday in Mackey Arena displayed the chasm that exists between the Purdue basketball program, perennially one of the best teams in the sport, and the Nittany Lions, still searching for its identity under new head coach Mike Rhoades.

The Nittany Lions jumped out to an early 10-8 lead, before Purdue used a 31-5 first-half run to take a 56-36 margin into halftime. Purdue led by as many as 28 points in the second half as the Boilermakers cruised to an easy win at home.

As opposed to Wednesday, when he wasn’t pleased with the level of play on the floor, Mike Rhoades highlighted the way his Penn State basketball program battled against the No. 1 team in the nation after Saturday’s loss. Nick Kern posted a career-best 18 points, while Kayne Clary scored 16, his 14th double-digit point outing of the season.

“I liked our guys,” Rhoades said. “We fought, we battled. But that run in the first half just put us in too deep of a hole.”

However, Penn State was powerless to stop the Boilermakers’ behemoth on the inside, Zach Edey. Edey led all scorers with 30, going 10-12 from the field while adding 20 rebounds. After the game, Rhoades explained how the Nittany Lions’ early plan to stop Zach Edey ultimately fell short.

“Early, we had a couple of good post traps, just to get him off-kilter a little,” he said. “But as the game goes on and you’re a little bit later to those traps, he’s catching at different places. The one thing I think he’s done a very good job of is increasing the range on his jump hook. It doesn’t have to be point-blank on the rim…We wanted to put different guys on him. We wanted to really wear him out, but that sure didn’t work.”

But ultimately, Mike Rhoades credited the tremendous shooting outing from the Purdue basketball team. The Boilermakers shot 60% from the field as part of that monumental first-half run and finished shooting 58% on the day.

“The biggest thing is, when Purdue is shooting the ball like they did in that first half, you’ve got to pick some poison there,” Rhoades stated. “And, for us, there was a lot of poison on the court. They shoot the ball like that, they’ll beat anybody.”

Penn State basketball faces a difficult stretch ahead

Back below .500, Penn State basketball now faces a challenging schedule to close out January. The Nittany Lions return home Tuesday night to play No. 15 Wisconsin. A road trip to Ohio State and a home matchup against Minnesota await to end the month. Although Penn State pulled off an 18-point comeback against Ohio State in early December, the Buckeyes and Gophers are Quad 1 and 3 opponents, respectively.

With Big Ten play beginning to heat up, time is running out for the Nittany Lions to find easy wins. If Penn State basketball wants to have a chance to make any kind of postseason play in the first season under Mike Rhoades, the Nittany Lions need to find a way to steal a win to wrap up the month.

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