Spartans, Wolverines to clash Saturday; Penn State advances to play Purdue

Halftime-Penn St. 33-32. 3-Point Goals-Penn St. 9-19 (Carr 4-7, Garner 3-6, Stevens 1-2, Reaves 1-4), Ohio St. 8-23 (Williams 2-4, Bates-Diop 2-5, Tate 1-1, A.Wesson 1-2, Potter 1-4, Jackson 1-5, Dakich 0-1, K.Wesson 0-1).

The Lions will now play the waiting game ahead of next Sunday’s NCAA Tournament selection show, vying for a bid to the tournament that would be the program’s first since 2011.

Carr’s was maddening, largely because of Nojel Eastern, who seems to have the Nittany Lions’ guard’s number, as they say.

Joseph, who is looking for his first Big Ten title after placing third as a freshman, said he isn’t anxious about perception of his final few regular-season performances, in which twice he was tossed to his back. Wagner leads MI with an average of 14.5 points and 7.2 rebounds per game while Simpson leads the Wolverines in assists with 3.6 assists per game this season.

Madison Carter (South River) scored with 24:12 left in regulation to give the Nittany Lions (3-2) a 13-6 lead.

“Nobody’s going to want to see us in the NCAA Tournament”, Penn State coach Patrick Chambers said.

The third time Friday night in NY was much of the same.

Tony Carr deserves all the credit in the world for the team’s success.

“I think they were very physical”, Chambers said.

BC-BKC-T25-B10-Penn St-Purdue, 1st Ld-Writethru, 717 Purdue heads to Big Ten champ game by beating Penn StateAP Photo NYJJ133, NYJJ129, NYJJ125, NYJJ126, NYJJ124, NYJJ136, NYJJ127, NYJJ123, NYJJ122Eds: No. 8 Purdue 78, Penn State 70. “It’s a little different atmosphere getting ready for those tournaments, NCAAs and Big Tens”, he said.

“I just noticed my man wasn’t looking at me so I took advantage of that”, Reaves said. They had beaten us twice. “It’s no secret. It would be big for us to play in it”.

Senior defenseman Trevor Hamilton scored his sixth goal of the season just 16 seconds into the game, unleashing a rocket of a slap shot past goaltender Eric Schierhorn.

“It’s here so just living in it”, Retherford said. “So it took a couple of games just to get used to playing without him”.

Gadiva Hubbard hit a three-pointer with five seconds left, but after Ohio State’s Makayla Waterman missed two free throws, Wagner couldn’t tie it. Friday, he had the ball in his hands at the end again but didn’t get almost as good of a look and hoisted up a running 3 from the right side and wasn’t close. During the second half, Matt Haarms was given a technical foul for evidently calling a Penn State player a “mannetjesezel” in Dutch.

In the team race, Penn State has 124.0 points, sitting a bit behind Ohio State, which has totaled 137.5 points. With 0:21 left and a one-point Buckeyes lead, Shep Garner forced Keita Bates-Diop into a turnover.

Mittelstadt brought Minnesota back within one when he added his second power-play goal of the night at 15:00 in the third period with Pitlick and Reedy set up the Gophers rookie. Bates-Diop, however, turned it over before the Buckeyes could attempt a shot.

After Penn State won five straight quarterfinals bouts, the Nittany Lions’ hot streak came to an end at 285. From there Carr handled the ball, and with time winding down, found Reaves cutting from the wing for an easy dunk. The center also improved on the glass, grabbing four offensive rebounds, one that went back for a P.J. Thompson three.

“I look at Dakich and can’t help but think of Aaron Craft…” “They put you in a lot of tough situations”.

“And I didn’t want to do that”.

“We went a year ago with, I don’t know how many qualifiers we had (they had eight)”.

“The Big Ten tournament is a small tournament, but it’s very competitive, obviously”.

Ohio State said the player that really hurt them again was Carr. Josh made a great play. “But, we did some good things and some stuff to build on going forward”.