Battle's late heroics lift Penn State past George Mason, into second round of NIT

Penn State vs George Mason

Throughout the 2009 season, Talor Battle has been making shots that combine athletic brilliance and scoreboard significance. Tuesday night in Happy Valley, the stellar Penn State guard decided to add one more clip to his highlight reel.
 
Battle's twisting, turning 3-point shot at the end of regulation enabled the Nittany Lions to send George Mason into overtime in the first round of the NIT. After bailing his shorthanded team out of jail, Battle then scored eight of his game-high 24 points in the extra period to lead Penn State to a 77-73 win over the gallant but gutted Patriots from the Colonial Athletic Association. Penn State, after a very quick turnaround--but quite possibly without premier forward Jamelle Cornley (more on that in a bit) will host Rhode Island on Thursday night in the second round of the 32-team event.
 
Anyone who has watched Blue and White basketball over the past few months knows how great a "H-O-R-S-E" player Talor Battle really is. One of the top scorers in the Big Ten has that special knack for putting the ball in the bucket from any number of body angles, and at any spot on the floor. Battle banked in long threes to slay Michigan State in East Lansing; he leaned and slashed to get through Illinois' defense and nail a game-winning shot with just three tenths of a second remaining on March 5; he picked many pockets at Iowa to lead the Lions back from a nine-point deficit in the final minutes, and force an overtime period. Whenever coach Ed DeChellis has faced crises large or small in 2009, Talor Battle's been able to save the day with peerless playmaking and ice-veins accuracy.

Thrown into the heat of NIT competition, in a game that had to challenge PSU's mental toughness, Battle didn't flinch when his team's survival was at stake.
 
Battle scored 13 points out of the gate to power the home team to a 23-20 lead, but to the guard's everlasting credit, he made it a point to get his other teammates involved. On a night when George Mason's bench tallied 30 points, Penn State--not usually accustomed to getting big numbers from secondary players--matched the Patriots with 30 bench points of its own. Jeff Brooks (13 points), Chris Babb (11), and Danny Morrissey (6) had high-efficiency games for the Nittany Lions in a contest that featured exceptional shooting at both ends of the floor.
Battle's sound judgments on offense enabled PSU to hit 50 percent of its shots, but the men of Mason countered by hitting a similarly impressive 46 percent from the field.
 
Precisely because the second-seeded Lions couldn't land a knockout blow against their seventh-seeded opponent from a mid-major conference, the second half turned into a nip-and-tuck affair, and remained that way because PSU lost one of its prime performers.
 
In the first minute of the second half, Cornley--the Lions' most dependable interior player and a man DeChellis simply can't afford to lose--reaggravated a shoulder injury that cropped up in the second Illinois game (March 5) and has been a persistent source of concern. Without a muscle man to hold court against a smaller GMU club, Penn State found itself vulnerable against coach Jim Larranaga's army of green-shirted guards. Despite PSU's offensive efficiency, the heroes of Happy Valley trailed, 65-62, after Patriot guard Dre Smith nailed a pair of free throws with five seconds left in regulation. Having been snubbed by the NCAA selection committee just a few days earlier, Penn State now faced the end of its season.
 
Unless, that is, a player of Talor Battle's caliber could ride to the rescue.

In that memorable win against Illinois just 12 days earlier, Battle had eight seconds to work with when he felled the Fighting Illini with a last-second bucket. In this matchup with Mason, Battle only had a five-second window, but for an artistic assassin, that time crunch was really "crunch time," the stage of a showdown when this supremely confident shooter thrives.
 
While other men would shrink from the last-second spotlight and not acquire the body balance that can accommodate a nearly impossible shot, Battle did indeed redirect his body to the basket after elevating without squaring up to the rim. Battle knew he had to shoot quickly, but he also knew that he had to use form and fluidity on his release. Not content to heave a prayer, but mindful of the need to gain space against George Mason defenders, Battle left the floor at the odd angle to gain a free shooting hand, but when in the air, he managed to make a 45-degree rotation and move his shoulders into a proper shooting alignment. The shot hit the bottom of the well, and with the Jordan Center wildly celebrating the arrival of overtime, the fate of both teams had been sealed. 
 
Just to make sure that his last-second shot would indeed carry the day, Battle confirmed as much by scoring 8 quick points in overtime to pace PSU to a 73-68 lead. When teammate Stanley Pringle calmly drained two free throws to give the Lions a 77-73 lead with seven seconds remaining, it was all over but the shouting.
 
Once again, Talor Battle fought with the focus and fury of a man who knew his team's season hung in the balance. Thursday against Rhode Island, Penn State might have to play without Jamelle Cornley for 40 minutes. It will only serve as an even greater challenge for Talor Battle, a call to do even more than he's already done this year.
 
Some might say that's a daunting prospect. Battle would probably view it as another chance to pull off the improbable, and add even more stature to a career that has skyrocketed over the past four months.

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