Payback is Hell for Lions

Penn State sustains worst loss of the season at the hands of Michigan State in East Lansing.

After stunning No. 7 Michigan State at the Jordan Center Feb. 2, Penn State headed to East Lansing looking to complete the season sweep Wednesday night. But the Spartans had other ideas.

MSU gained its measure of revenge and then some, handing the Nittany Lions their worst loss of the season, 86-49.

“We just didn't have anything tonight,” Penn State coach DeChellis said on his post-game radio show. “We looked like we were a step slow with everything.”

PSU fell to 12-13 overall and 4-9 in the Big Ten with the defeat. The No. 17 Spartans, who are a perfect 15-0 at Breslin Center this year and have never lost a home game to the Lions (16-0), snapped a two-game losing streak to improve to 21-5 and 9-4.

MSU jumped out to an early 12-4 lead before Penn State rallied to cut it to 12-10 on a Jamelle Cornley jumper with 12:22 left in the first half. But from there it was all Michigan State.

The Spartans led 39-27 at the break and then opened the second half with a 13-2 run to blow it wide open. How easy was it for Michigan State? Forward Raymar Morgan led the way, scoring a game-high 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting.

As a team, MSU hit 58.3 percent of its field goals and 58.8 percent of its 3-pointers. PSU, meanwhile, was 34.6 percent from the floor and 26.3 percent from the arc.

“We talked about us having a great first four minutes of the second half,” DeChellis said. “… but that just never materialized.”

Guard Stanley Pringle was the only Lion regular to make more than half of his shots, going 4 of 8 for a team-high 12 points. Cornley added 11 and is now one short of 1,000 career points. His six rebounds gave him 502 for his career.

Next up for the Lions is a trip to Minnesota Sunday. The game tips at 2 p.m. and can be seen on the Big Ten Network.

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