Penn State started off the season 4-0 under new head coach [autotag]Mike Rhoades[/autotag]. Many, if not all, of those games were glorified scrimmages and allowed the Nittany Lions to gel before heading out to their Thanksgiving tournament.
That event would be their first big test of the early season with them beginning the ESPN Events Invitational against No. 12 ranked Texas A&M in a rematch of the NCAA Tournament last year.
After two losses to start the event, Penn State played VCU on Sunday in the seventh place game. With Rhoades, [autotag]Ace Baldwin[/autotag] and [autotag]Nick Kern[/autotag] leaving VCU for the Nittany Lions, this game had some underlying storylines before tip off.
Unfortunately, Penn State couldn’t win a single game in the tournament as they lost 86-74 for their third-straight double-digit loss.
Things got off to a rocky start when VCU took a 9-2 lead almost five minutes into the game. The Nittany Lions were ablet to recover and the first half was a seesaw affair with the Rams extending leads and then Penn State going on mini runs to reduce the deficit.
VCU led 46-40 at halftime after up-and-down action.
Penn State took their first lead since the 8:50 mark in the first half when a [autotag]Qudus Wahab[/autotag] layup gave them a 49-48 lead with 15:22 remaining in the game.
This began another seesaw affair until VCU eventually got some separation and never relented the lead again.
Overall, it was a disappointing tournament for the Nittany Lions, who came into this event with confidence after dominating the early portion of their season.
An early injury to [autotag]Kanye Clary[/autotag] didn’t help their cause as their best guard through so far this year was limited to nine minutes and zero points.
A good sign for Penn State is that Baldwin had his best game of the season, scoring 27 points on 8 of 19 shooting from the field and two made three-pointers. He also had five assists and two steals.
Ultimately, while the results were disappointing, there are still plenty of positives to takeaway from this event as they head home for some preparation before their last non-conference game on Dec. 6.