Penn State rallies late to top Iowa, sustain NCAA hopes

Penn State vs Iowa

Penn State can't clinch an NCAA Tournament bid by beating the likes of the Iowa Hawkeyes, but coach Ed DeChellis's ballclub can certainly miss out on March Madness by losing to a lower-division Big Ten team. When the Nittany Lions trailed by 14 midway through the second half of Saturday evening's game in Happy Valley, a slow-motion disaster loomed over the horizon.
 
Jamelle Cornley and Talor Battle insisted on a different outcome, and as a result, the trajectory of PSU's season has been significantly altered for the better. The two young men who have carried their teammates in 2009 were Lion-hearted down the stretch, enabling Penn State to nip Iowa at the wire, 63-59, before a relieved crowd at the Bryce Jordan Center.
 
This was an old-fashioned scramble by the home team, a desperate display of basketball that actually managed to succeed. What makes this win so impressive for Penn State--even though it came against an undermanned opponent--is that Iowa coach Todd Lickliter, dating back to his days at Butler University, has taught the kind of offensive system that runs clock and yet makes a defense chase at the same time. When a Lickliter-coached team leads you by 14, the deficit feels a lot larger.

It's so easy to be impatient when trying to mount a comeback against the Iowa boss; therefore, the Nittany Nation's late-game surge--built primarily on defense and the power of Cornley, who exploded for 24 points--represents the extent to which Penn State has matured this season. Last year's group wouldn't have had the moxie or maturity to complete such a comeback, but in 2009, coach DeChellis has a resourceful and relentless roster that has consistently responded to hardships. Tonight was just the latest example of this dynamic in action. Cornley willed his team within a bucket (59-57) just under the 3:00 mark of regulation time, before Battle--a certified assassin on the court--nailed an ice-vein three and scored another bucket after a steal to account for the winning margin. DeChellis's defense never blinked in crunch time, and when Nittany Lion guard Stanley Pringle blocked a tying 3-point try by Iowa's Jeff Peterson with 5 seconds left, it was all over but the shouting.
 
Penn State has more work to do to nail down that coveted NCAA bid. Thanks to this impressive comeback against Iowa, that bid is still looking like an entirely attainable goal.

> Find more Big Ten football news online at Big Ten Fans!