Penn State basketball rallies from 18-point deficit to stun Ohio State. Here’s what PSU said
Penn State men’s basketball pulled off the upset Saturday night and defeated Ohio State, the No. 24 team in the country according to the KenPom rankings, just one week after losing to Bucknell. The Nittany Lions earned the 83-80 win after trailing by as much as 18 in the second half.
The comeback at the Bryce Jordan Center began when the deficit hit that number with 15:31 left in the game. The Nittany Lions (5-5, 1-1 Big Ten) slowly climbed back into the matchup, dropping the deficit to single digits with 9:29 left, on the back of some timely shot-making.
They tied it up at 74 with 2:33 in the game on a Leo O’Boyle 3-pointer before Ohio State (8-2, 1-1) retook the lead. However, the Nittany Lions scored the next five points to seize the lead for good, with Ace Baldwin Jr. scoring in the paint and then draining a 3-pointer with 32 seconds left. That gave PSU a 79-76 lead, which eventually turned into 83-80 after some late-game fouling.
Here’s what the team said after the victory.
Penn State head coach Mikes Rhoades
On Baldwin’s performance
“I have seen that a lot. It’s his competitiveness. He’s not always the biggest or the strongest or the most athletic, but he’s got an unbelievable level of grit. And his competitiveness, I’ve always said, is elite. The problem with Ace is he gets so mad at himself and upset with himself if he’s not performing. And I think that’s affected him this year at times and has gotten down. Today I just said to him, let it all out. We’re in this together until April. I said, ‘So just figure it out, let it out, and quit everything else and let’s just see what happens.’”
On what changed since the Bucknell loss
“I think they’re learning to play together, play off of each other better. I think the disappointment and embarrassment and we just, you know, we had a couple of meetings. A couple of meetings with specific guys and I had a team meeting Monday morning that there’s just certain ways we’re going to go about things no matter what to build this thing. ... You gotta go through all this stuff. We had a couple heart-to-hearts. And I said if we’re gonna go to Maryland, we’re gonna play Ohio State this week. If you guys don’t get right mentally and stick together, it’s just going to be really, really hard. And to their credit we had good practices; they were in a good place. Even today when we got down, when I challenged them at the 15-minute mark, they were present. And guys stepped up. I think some guys off the bench have really helped us. And we’re making some more shots, and that’s helping.”
On forward Leo O’Boyle and guard D’Marco Dunn’s performances off the bench
“Well, I was expecting Leo to shoot like that all year long because he’s an excellent shooter. I think the guys are really doing a good job of finding him better too. So he’s moving better, we’re moving him around in different positions, he’s finding his niche, and guys are looking for him. And the other thing about Leo, he doesn’t come across (as) it, but he’s a super confident guy. Not cocky, but confident. He knows who he is, and he’s good with who he is. And he battles on one end. He’s not afraid to throw his body ...
D’Marco, I think D’Marco is gonna continue to be a really good player for us. He just has to continue to put himself out there to get better and better. He wasn’t ready to play against Maryland, and I really got on him about that. ... I thought today he was ready to play. I thought he was flying around a little bit on the defensive end that got himself going. He got a steal as soon as he got in the game. He had some good plays that got himself going. And then he can really score it. He’s always had the knack to score the ball. ... I think he’s just scratching the surface.”
On the crowd
“That was awesome. The students behind me were great. All the fans were great. Look, this is what we’re trying to build. ... That’s the fun of it. I want everybody to sweat with us. I want everybody to be a part of this. When we don’t win, I want them to be mad driving home but, man, I can’t wait to get to the next one. ... I don’t want this just to be a basketball team. I want it to be bigger than that.”
On what the win means moving forward
“I’ll tell you that on Tuesday after we practice. Honestly. They’re all jacked right now. We’re all jacked. We’re all happy. They’re excited. But are they going to come into practice and be locked in and focused? And how much better can we get after a win like this? ... Let’s make it even more exciting because we come back to practice the next two, three days and get better.”
Penn State guard Ace Baldwin Jr.
On what changed in the second half for the team
“We never give up. We played until the clock hit zero. And Coach just told us after, just go out and play. So that’s what we did.”
On what changed in the second half for him
“I just want to say, shout out to my coaches and my teammates for just giving me that confidence. He was telling me even when shots weren’t falling, ‘Just keep shooting; they’re gonna fall.’”
On the 3-pointer that gave the team the lead
“The 3s I took, they were in and out. So on this one he kept backing up, so I was like, ‘Oh yeah, this one gotta drop.’”
On the team’s energy
“When you see how the energy was and we just came back, we were down 18? We had the energy. Shout out to the fans too.”
Penn State forward Leo O’Boyle
On why he shot so well (4-of-5 from 3-point range)
“I was in a major slump. I can’t tell you the last time I was shooting that bad. But just getting in the gym every day after the game shooting, getting with our coaches and getting shots up in game-like situations — it’s really translated into games. And it definitely helped today. But I definitely was feeling great and confident out there. Especially when these guys are pumping me up. Makes me feel like I can make every shot.”
On D’Marco Dunn
“He’s a super athletic guy. He can help us extremely on the defensive end and the offensive end as we saw today. He had a couple steals, led to fastbreak points.”
On how the win helps moving forward
“Every one of these games (is) going to be tough battles. So just having a quick memory; Ted Lasso says memory of a goldfish. So just have that; move day to day, and get ready for the next one.”
On who spoke up when the team was down 18
“I think we were all talking. Guys that were in, guys on the bench still, I think we all have a lot of respect for each other’s voices. And we hear each other in those timeouts and try to make each other better.”
