Matthew O’Haren-USA TODAY Sports The Nittany Lions’ postseason tournament hopes remain intact. Conference tournaments tend to represent a chance for some teams to reset and rattle off a win or two or three which at the very least, can have them feeling good going into the offseason, if not help them make it to a postseason tournament. For this edition of Penn State basketball, the Big Ten Tournament offered an opportunity to begin a run that could ultimately push their 15-16 overall record above .500 and give them a shot at an NIT bid. In order to accomplish that though, they first had to take care of business against a Michigan team in absolute free fall, having lost eight in a row and 13 of their last 14. The first half featured mostly ugly shooting from both sides, as if these were a pair of Intramural teams trying to see who could out-brick the other. PSU’s defense was able to create their share of turnovers, but struggled to convert them into points. Michigan meanwhile, we able to get their share of offensive rebounds, which they converted enough second chance points off of to keep PSU from potentially running away with this one early on. With less than five minutes remaining in the half and the game frustratingly tied up at 20, the Lions went on a 13-2 run in the final 4:22 of the half to take a 33-22 lead into the locker room, thanks in large part to Zach Hicks heating up from beyond the perimeter (Hicks went 4-for-6 on three-pointers in the first half). Although they probably should’ve been up by 20 at that point, any kind of double-digit halftime lead felt welcome. Michigan came out like bats out of hell from the locker room, scoring the first seven points of the second half to quickly cut PSU’s lead down to four. Ace Baldwin however, had some answers, driving through the lane to lay it in, followed by a pull-up trey. Qudus Wahab added a pair of free throws, while Zach Hicks picked up where he left off from the first half by nailing his fifth trey of the evening to put the Lions back up ten before the first media timeout. The Wolverines would keep things close enough for discomfort though, as they were able to cut it to a four-point Nittany Lion lead with 10 minutes to play. That’s when PSU went to work, going on a 13-5 run over the next five-and-a-half minutes, led by Baldwin and Wahab’s free throwing shooting, and another trey from Hicks for good measure. Michigan would ultimately struggle to throw the ball into the ocean with all of their missed shots down the stretch, as PSU pushed its lead to as high as 15 with a little over a minute to play, enough time to send in the bench warmers. It wasn’t pretty at times, but as the late, great, Jim Valvano would say: “Survive and advance.” Player(s) of the Game Zach Hicks - 20 points (6-for-11 3 PT FG), 6 rebounds Ace Baldwin, Jr. - 17 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, 3 steals Qudus Wahab - 13 points, 8 rebounds, 1 block Despite PSU shooting less than 40 percent from the floor, Zach and Ace stepped up and got it done when they absolutely needed to and helped fend off a Wolverine squad that to their credit, did not mail it in. Qudus also flirted with a double-double on the evening, so we’ll give him a shout-out, as well. Random Observations YOU Get a Turnover and YOU Get a Turnover! - Michigan looked absolutely stymied out there in the first half, having already committed 11 turnovers in the first half. They would finish the game with 15 in total, compared to only ten for PSU. Charity Stripe was Charitable - PSU not only won the turnover battle, but even more importantly, they won the free throw battle by making 15 more trips to the line than Michigan, connecting on 23 of their 29 total attempts (79.5 percent) while the Wolverines had their struggles, hitting only 9 of their 14 attempts. Happy Trails, Juwan - It’s probably safe to presume that Juwan Howard just coached his final game at Michigan. We’ll see who the Wolverines end up finding for his replacement, but one has to think they will be able to throw some serious $$$ to participate in the Dusty May sweepstakes or land some other proven head coach. Up Next Penn State’s season continues for at least one more day, as the Nittany Lions face Indiana in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament tomorrow (Thursday) night. Tipoff will be 25 minutes after the end of the Ohio State-Iowa game, which tips off at 6:30 PM EST. The game will be televised on B1G Network. Source: https://www.blackshoediaries.com/2024/3 ... ke-rhoades