Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later, but the Penn State men’s basketball team took its first loss of the season on Friday. Penn State battled back in the second half against Virginia Tech in the second round of the Shiners Children’s Charleston Classic on Friday afternoon but could not quite pull itself out of the hole it dug before halftime. Penn State lost to the Hokies by a score of 61-59.
Virginia Tech outpaced Penn State from the start of the game and built a 16-point lead, which provided the Nittany Lions with their first real dose of adversity early on in the season. The rally was led by [autotag]Andrew Funk[/autotag], who led the way with a 21-point effort, and five three-pointers made by [autotag]Myles Dread[/autotag]. After their 20-point efforts in the opening game of the tournament, [autotag]Jalen Pickett[/autotag] and [autotag]Seth Lundy[/autotag] were limited to just 13 combined points by the Virginia Tech defense.
The Hokies had balanced scoring from its starting five with four starters scoring in double-digits. Grant Basile led the effort with 17 points in just 26 minutes for the Hokies.
Penn State will now play in the third-place game of the Charleston Classic on Sunday evening. The Nittany Lions will face Colorado State. The Rams blew out South Carolina in its opening game of the tournament but lost to the host school, Charleston, on Friday. Charleston will face Virginia Tech on Sunday afternoon for the tournament championship.
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