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Ohio State Adds to Penn State's List of Tough Beats this Season

Penn State nearly pulled out a much-needed win over the No. 13 Buckeyes. Coach Jim Ferry says the big win will come soon.

Penn State nearly extracted a season-changing win in Columbus on Wednesday night. Instead, the Lions now find themselves needing to dig out from the same expanding hole.

Ohio State went on a 21-9 run in the last eight minutes, and made 95 percent of its free throws in the game, to retrieve an 83-79 home victory that it nearly allowed to escape. The 13th-ranked Buckeyes steamrolled Penn State early, frittered away a 12-point lead and fought back with an assertive defensive effort to rip a victory from the Lions.

Now Penn State (5-7, 2-6 Big Ten) faces back-to-back games against No. 10 Wisconsin, the first of which is scheduled for Saturday at the Bryce Jordan Center. The Lions need something magical to maintain their NCAA Tournament hopes, which largely have rested on strength of schedule and the hope of generating big wins from it.

Sooner or later, interim coach Jim Ferry said, it's going to happen.

"I give our guys a lot of credit," Ferry said. "This is a tough, tough, really good Ohio State team. Obviously, you're one play away from winning it. But we can say that about the Indiana game and the Seton Hall game [both overtime losses], too.

"So we're going to keep doing it. These guys deserve every opportunity to win games and they keep putting themselves into position to [win]. We're just going to keep getting better and we're going to win these games. We will."

Of Penn State's seven losses, four have been decided in the last two minutes or overtime. Delivering the most Big Ten sting were losses to Michigan and Indiana. The Lions missed the tying layup in the last minute against the Wolverines and were called for a brutal foul with 7 seconds left in regulation of an overtime loss to Indiana.

On Wednesday at Ohio State (13-4), the Lions set up two superb looks either to take the lead or tie in the game's final minute. But Seth Lundy, who was terrific with a game-high 26 points, missed a go-ahead 3-pointer with 49 seconds left. Then Myreon Jones missed a floating jumper that would have tied the game with 3 seconds remaining.

"We really did a lot of really good things to win this basketball game," Ferry said. "We put ourselves in position to win it and we executed. You know, you can't control the shots going in. You can control the focus, the concentration and the effort to execute. And I thought we did a fantastic job of that."

The Lions' second half included one of their best stretches of the season, charged by a 10-0 run that featured smart shot selection and inspired defense. Penn State forced the Buckeyes into a season-high 17 turnovers, scoring 23 points off the miscues.

Lundy was terrific, keeping Penn State in the building in the first half by shooting 5-for-8 from the field. And Ferry got choked up talking about John Harrar, the team's primary interior presence, who had 15 points and 10 rebounds.

"John's a warrior," Ferry said. "I feel like there's so much on his back and he's just taking it all. He's like water: He just morphs into whatever you need him to do."

But then Penn State's offense went silent for more than 5 minutes, missing six consecutive shots. Ohio State recouped an eight-point deficit and regained the lead, 74-73, with a jumper that followed two missed foul shots by Jamari Wheeler.

For the first time this season, Penn State lost a Big Ten game in which it committed fewer personal fouls than its opponent. Ohio State committed one more, 20-19, but also delivered an otherworldly foul-shooting game.

The Buckeyes shot 95 percent (20-for-21) from the free-throw line; Penn State was 18-for-24. Ferry said he thought "some ticky-tack fouls might have hurt us."

"I thought there were two teams that really, really battled," Ferry said. "I'm really proud of our guys. We just can't let this game affect us on Saturday. We have to bounce back."

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