After being written off following the absolute choke job against Rutgers, the Nittany Lions returned to the Bryce Jordan Center squarely back in the NCAA Tournament picture after pulling off a stunning upset on the road at Northwestern. Win today against Maryland on Senior Day, and the Lions would likely only need to win their first game in this upcoming week’s Big Ten Tournament in order to punch their ticket to March Madness. No pressure, fellas...
For the first 35 minutes it sure looked like the team was going to succumb to said pressure: Although they jumped out to an early 10-4 lead, PSU proceeded to follow that up with a combination of nine first half turnovers, porous defense (a Maryland team not known for being the best three-point shooting team, went 7-for-17 from downtown in the first half and were able to get their share of points in the paint) and the inability of anyone other than Pickett to shoot on a consistent basis, which allowed the Terps to go on a pair of huge runs as PSU went on scoring droughts of over four and eight minutes.