Penn State came out for the second half of Sunday's exhibition against Division II Bloomsburg with only a 13-point lead. Then the Nittany Lions scored on their first possession of the second stanza off a Jamelle Cornley layup.
Instead of running back to the defensive end of the court, Cornley, along with his teammates, pressed Bloomsburg, forcing a turnover. On the next possession, Penn State forced another steal.
Although it was against a PSAC team, Penn State used a forceful full-court press quite often in its 77-51 win over the Huskies at the Bryce Jordan Center.
“It was in spurts,” Nittany Lion coach Ed DeChellis said. “The pressing thing, it's one of those things where you use it three or four possessions and try to change the game and try to create some energy try to create some energy in the building. Then you might need to get out of it. Our younger guys didn't get to their spots quick enough. … When our older guys were in there, it was pretty effective.”
The Lions forced Bloomsburg to turn the ball over 20 times while Penn State had only six miscues.
Two Penn State forwards were out of Sunday's game with concussions — Billy Oliver and Jeff Brooks.
DeChellis said Brooks is day-to-day after suffering his concussion on Thursday after Andrew Jones' elbow accidentally hit Brooks in the head.
Guard Stanley Pringle played the most minutes for Penn State with 25. Nine of the 11 Lions who saw playing time scored.
DeChellis was unhappy in his team's defensive effort early. Bloomsburg scored only 24 points in the first half, but Penn State was charged with 11 fouls. The high foul total, in DeChellis' view, indicated the Lions were allowing the Huskies to drive to the basket and that PSU was not getting in position to draw offensive fouls.
He said he would point that out in Monday's film session to try to correct it before Friday's season opener against William & Mary.
Sophomore point guard and team captain Talor Battle agreed with his coach.
“When they drove they got open jump shots, got into the lane too easily,” Battle explained. “And then we what we call fire and rotate, where we have to help off if a man gets beat … we didn't do a great job of rotating and picking up the open guy.”
Battle led PSU with 17 points, while senior guard Danny Morrissey and sophomore forward David Jackson both added 14.