Road woes plague Hoosiers yet again

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- The IU men's basketball team finished its season by reinforcing the on-going theme of not being able to come through on the road.\nThe vintage Hoosier team that on the road comes out flat, digs a hole for itself and spends the entire rest of the time playing catch-up was once again present.\nThat strategy hasn't worked in the past and it didn't work Saturday against Penn State as IU completed its regular season with a 74-66 loss.\n"The problem we have is that if they don't listen to me, we have no chance of winning," IU coach Mike Davis said. "Unless we execute every single play every single possession, we don't stand a chance."\nThe slow second half start the Hoosiers (18-10, 8-8 Big Ten) have been notorious for was also not omitted from this game. IU had a narrow lead following halftime and held onto it for just over four minutes before Penn State (7-20, 2-14) got right back into the game.\nThe Hoosiers started off their second half descent quickly when senior forward Jeff Newton, who led the team in rebounds with 10, missed a jumper. Penn State enjoyed one of its five second half offensive rebounds when sophomore forward Jan Jagla grabbed the board and scored on the putback to put the Nittany Lions within one.\nThe lead eluded Penn State until 15:19 remained in the second half. The Nittany Lions picked up three points after junior guard A.J. Moye, who had five first half rebounds, fouled freshman forward Aaron Johnson, who scored 10 off the bench in the game. Johnson's lay-up counted and he sank his free throw, tying the game at 42.\nThe Hoosiers went up by one less than 30 seconds later when Newton went one-for-one from the free throw line. It was the last lead IU held as Penn State led by as much as 10 in the second half.\n"We talked about not coming out flat like we had in the last couple of games, but we let them make a run on us instead of us attacking them," senior guard Tom Coverdale said. \nThe Nittany Lions quickly grabbed and extended the lead as they went on a 10-2 scoring run that was disrupted when senior guard Kyle Hornsby made a layup to cut the lead to seven. The next two possessions for the Hoosiers sent freshman guard Bracey Wright, who led the team with 21 points, and sophomore guard Donald Perry to the free throw line. Both hit their two shots, which brought IU within five.\nBut the Nittany Lions, who went 7-for-13 from beyond the arc, stopped the Hoosiers in their tracks when freshman guard/forward Deforrest Riley hit a trey to give Penn State an eight-point lead with 6:18 left in the game.\nA scary moment halted the game when Penn State's Brandon Watkins collided with IU's Sean Kline as he drove to the basket. Watkins was flipped, taken off the court and reportedly suffered an injury to his hip.\nThe Nittany Lions had a solid grasp on the game with 2:18 left and leading by 10. But a jumper from Wright, a Hornsby trey and a free throw brought the Hoosiers within four with 50 seconds left to play. But IU finished the game with a turnover; two players, Newton and sophomore forward Mike Roberts, fouled out and four more points scored by Penn State.\n"They continued to score and in clutch situations we couldn't get stops," Roberts said. "They were able to hurt us on the offensive glass, but we weren't able to make stops. That's the way I see it."\nThe Hoosiers started the game in the same slow fashion that usually is reserved for the second half. IU grabbed the lead first after freshman guard Marshall Strickland, who finished with 12, drove the ball to the basket with 18:45 left in the half.\nPenn State answered with two successful free throws from Jagla for the one-point lead, and continued with a 15-4 run for a 10-point lead with just over 14 minutes left to play. IU quickly struck back as Wright hit a lay-up and Strickland sank a trey to cut the Nittany Lion lead in half.\nA jump shot from Perry with 6:13 left in the half put the Hoosiers up by one, and IU regained the first half lead for good when Wright hit a jumper with just under three minutes left to play.\nThis loss doesn't necessarily decrease IU's chances of making the NCAA tournament, but the Hoosiers understand the importance of the upcoming Big Ten Tournament, which starts this Thursday at noon.\n"I don't know. We didn't do anything," Roberts said of the Penn State loss. "We couldn't get stops, we couldn't get shots, we just couldn't get it done"