If the alarms weren’t going off for the Penn State basketball program after losing three straight games during their Thanksgiving tournament, they have to be blaring right now.
The Nittany Lions entered Saturday’s game against Bucknell as massive favorites. After all, it’s a Big Ten team hosting a Patriot League program. On paper, this was a massive mismatch.
That’s not how it turned out though as Penn State lost the game 76-67.
Not only is the result shocking, it’s completely unacceptable after allowing Bucknell to shoot 58.0% from the field and 47.6% from three-point range as they finished with 10 threes.
The only time the Nittany Lions were remotely in control of the game was right before halftime as they took a six point lead into the locker room up 33-27.
It seemed like that newfound momentum would be the catalyst that propelled them to a dominant outing like expected. However, that was the furthest thing from the case.
After going up 41-33 with 15:42 left in the game, Penn State completely fell asleep and let Bucknell get back into things with poor defense and poor offense.
A 12-4 run by Bucknell with under three minutes in the fourth quarter was the nail in the coffin for Penn State as they dropped their fourth game in a row and second game to the Bison in program history.
[autotag]Qudus Wahab[/autotag] was the leading scorer for the Nittany Lions with 18 points. He added eight rebounds as well in his best performance of the season. [autotag]Ace Baldwin[/autotag] came off the bench and added 17 points. [autotag]Zach Hicks[/autotag] was the only other player in double figures with 13 points.
It’s been a rough couple weeks for the program under new head coach [autotag]Mike Rhoades[/autotag]. After winning four games to start the season, they are now on a four game losing streak with a loss to Bucknell on their record.
The Nittany Lions will have to pick themselves off the mat quickly as they head to Maryland Dec. 6 for their first Big Ten action of the year.