Penn State's comeback falls short against Rutgers in regular-season finale

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — After squandering a 15-point second-half lead against Penn State, Rutgers did what it has done all season and found a way to win at home.

Not only did the Scarlet Knights (18-12, 12-8 Big Ten) win for the 14th time in 17 games at Jersey Mike’s Arena, they also might have done just enough to get a second straight bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Senior Ron Harper Jr. scored 15 points and hit a go-ahead free throw with 1 minute, 41 seconds to play as the Scarlet Knights edged Penn State, 59-58, on Sunday.

John Harrar had 15 points and 17 rebounds for Penn State, which lost its third straight game. It was his 11th double-double of the season.

Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell didn’t hesitate when asked if 12 wins in one of the toughest, if not the toughest, conference was enough for an NCAA bid.

“I just look at this league. I know how we’re playing,” Pikiell said. “Not only can we be in that thing, we can win some games, too. This is a really good basketball team.”

If there is a knock against the Scarlet Knights, it’s they have some bad losses this season: Lafayette, UMass, DePaul and Penn State (12-16, 7-13). They have been oddly inconsistent. Great one half, bad the next.

That’s what happened Sunday as Penn State picked up its defense and used a 24-9 run to tie the score at 55 on a jumper by Seth Lundy with 2 minutes left.

Harper put Rutgers back in front, making the second of two free throws. Caleb McConnell added two more free throws with 31.4 seconds left, and Geo Baker made one to give the Scarlet Knights a 59-55 lead with 17 seconds to play.

Sam Sessoms closed the lead to 59-58 with a 3-pointer with 11 seconds to play. He had a chance to win the game after Paul Mulcahy threw away an inbounds pass with four seconds left.

Sessoms took a cross-court pass, and his contested 3-pointer at the buzzer came up short.

“It was a whole lot of relief,” Harper said of the final miss.

Actually, the Nittany Lions had a chance to tie the score at 58 with 20 seconds to go, but Greg Lee also missed a 3-pointer.

“I never thought it was over,” Harper said. “That’s a really good basketball team. I told these guys, the record doesn’t display how good they actually are. They play tough games, night in and night out, and a lot of their losses are really tight games like this.”

First-year Penn State coach Micah Shrewsberry said he hopes to rebuild his program the way Steve Pikiell rebuilt Rutgers with hard, tough, talented players.

“It just took us too long to settle in today,” he said. “Once we got settled, we played the way we wanted to play for 40 minutes.”

Cliff Omoruyi and Dean Reiber added nine points apiece for Rutgers, which did not score a basket in the final 5:35.

Lundy added 17 points, and Sessoms finished with 13 for Penn State. The Nittany Lions were 6 of 24 from long range.

Rutgers twice led by 15 points in the second half, the last time at 46-31 with 12:39 left in regulation.

Penn State will be the No. 11 seed in the Big Ten Tournament and play an opening-round game Wednesday.