Penn State shocks No. 6 Iowa

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Inexplicable things seem to happen at Penn State.

Less than two weeks after stopping then-Big Ten co-leader Indiana, the Nittany Lions did the same thing to Iowa on Wednesday night in a 79-75 win at Bryce Jordan Center. The teams played just two weeks ago in Iowa City, and the No. 6 Hawkeyes bludgeoned Penn State 73-49. Well, this encounter was quite different.

'You can't just show up to play,' said Iowa guard Peter Jok, who scored a game-high 28 points. 'You've got to play your game every time you play. We knew they were ready for us tonight. They made 3s, and they had a great game.'

The Nittany Lions (13-13, 4-9 Big Ten) missed 19 of 20 3-point attempts in Iowa City. Wednesday, they drilled seven of 14 in the first half alone. Penn State sank just 30.4 percent from the field at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. At University Park, Penn State players hit 46.4 percent of their shots and nearly 56 percent in the first half.

After a promising start, the game quickly slipped into a quagmire for the Hawkeyes (20-6, 11-3 Big Ten). The Nittany Lions scored on seven of eight possessions — including five 3-pointers over that span — to slice a seven-point deficit into a seven-point lead. Four different Penn State shooters connected on 3-pointers during the run.

Perimeter shooting caused the most damage early. Iowa led 12-4 early, then Penn State guard Shep Garner hit consecutive 3-pointers to bring the Nittany Lions with 12-10. After Iowa took a 22-15 lead, Garner again nailed back-to-back 3s.

Iowa struggled to rotate on defense on several of the 3-pointers, which left Garner and his teammates wide open in the corner.

'We obviously wanted to do a better job on Garner than we did,' Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. 'To his credit he made four, three of them on ball screens. We needed to be up and on him, we were not. So that got him going.

'Our rotations were not as good as they needed to be. To their credit, they moved the ball and got it to open people. If you give them 10 3s and they moved the ball. They shot it with confidence, executed ... that's going to open everything up.'

'They hit us with stuff we pretty much expected,' Iowa guard Anthony Clemmons said. 'But we didn't counter off what they were doing quick enough. Garner got hot and we tried to adjust to him, then (Brandon) Taylor got hot and we tried to adjust to him.'

Adding to the problem, Iowa's offense failed to compensate at the other end. The Hawkeyes missed their final seven shots of the half and scored only six from the free-throw line in the final 7:31. The second half was more of the same.

Iowa looked out of rhythm offensively for the second consecutive game. Penn State's physical defense sent the Hawkeyes to the line 35 times but made only 25. Penn State, conversely, knocked down 17 of 22 free throws. At one seven-minute period in the second half, Iowa scored just one basket.

'It came easy early,' McCaffery said. 'We were up 8-0. Then we didn't move the ball as well as we should have or could have. I don't think we turned it over that much in the first half. I thought we got good shots. We got really good shots, we didn't make them.'

Facing a nine-point deficit with 1:20 left, Iowa's perimeter shooters got into a better flow. Iowa sank four 3-pointers, but it was too little, too late. After Jok hit back-to-back 3-pointers to cut Iowa's deficit to three points, Penn State's Brandon Taylor connected on one of two free throws with 7 seconds left to ice the game.

'They were just in an attack mode from start to finish, and we were never able to adjust to how they were coming at us,' Clemmons said.

The Hawkeyes remain at least tied atop the Big Ten standings but don't play again until next Wednesday when they entertain Wisconsin.

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