Penn State's hot shooting from deep buries Michigan: 'They were just raining 3s'

University Park, Pa. — Late in the first half, Penn State’s Seth Lundy launched a contested 3-pointer that hit the rim and bounced straight up.

As the ball descended, it hit both sides of the iron, rattled in and left Michigan freshman wing Jett Howard throwing up his arms in despair.

It painted a picture of how things went Sunday at Bryce Jordan Center, where the Nittany Lions buried the Wolverines under an avalanche of long-range shots and Michigan seemingly couldn’t do anything right after the first 16 minutes in a lopsided 83-61 loss.

BOX SCORE: Penn State 83, Michigan 61

“When that one 3 bounced all the way up and you see the timing of that ball, I was begging, 'Please bounce out. Let's get the rebound,’” Michigan coach Juwan Howard said. “It stayed up there for like 3½ seconds, if I was counting, and then it bounced in. I'm like, 'Wow. Is it one of those days?'

“From there, they went on a run, and they didn't look back.”

Lundy’s deep ball came during an overwhelming 18-0 flurry where Penn State (14-7, 5-5 Big Ten) seized control and turned a one-point edge into a 17-point halftime cushion that continued to swell after the break.

It all started to unravel for Michigan (11-10, 5-5) with roughly four minutes left in the first half. Down the stretch, Penn State got hot in a hurry from deep and reeled off the game-changing spurt with a barrage of 3-pointers.

During the flurry, Penn State knocked down five consecutive deep balls, including a pair of open ones from Michael Henn (10 points) and Lundy’s rim-rattler. By the time Andrew Funk ended the scoring spree by splashing back-to-back 3-pointers and turning a turnover into a three-point play, Michigan was staring at a 49-32 deficit that it never came close to recovering from.

“We let the wrong people get hot and we didn't show enough effort defensively. I think that's what went wrong,” said Jett Howard, who finished with 21 points in his return to the starting lineup after injuring his left ankle last week and missing Thursday’s matchup against No. 1 Purdue.

“They were just raining 3s. I feel like they got in rhythm. It's hard to stop a team that's in rhythm and they're used to these goals already. It was tough. We were fighting an uphill battle.”

Penn State continued to pour it on in the second half. Lundy opened the half with a corner 3-pointer. Funk drained another one off a screen from straightaway. After a Michigan timeout, Lundy splashed another long-range shot to give Penn State a 60-34 cushion with 16:44 remaining.

The Nittany Lions continued to run the Wolverines out of the building, as Lundy connected on 3-pointer during a 9-0 spurt that gave Penn State its largest lead, 73-41, with 9:51 to play. From there, Michigan closed the game on a meaningless run en route to its fifth loss in seven games and fourth straight defeat on the road.

Jalen Pickett flirted with a triple-double with 25 points, eight rebounds and eight assists, Lundy finished with 22 points and Funk scored 19 for Penn State, which shot 54.4% from the field (31-for-57) and 43.3% from 3-point range (13-for-30).

The Nittany Lions’ 13 3-pointers were the most the Wolverines allowed in a game this season. It also marked the fifth time Penn State hit that many in a contest.

“Those 3s when the ball is bouncing up, the basketball gods helped those. But those other 3s that they made, that was poor planning from the coach on not doing a good job of making Penn State work for every bucket they got,” Juwan Howard said. “There were a lot of times where it just back cut, layup or back cut, 3. That should never happen. That's on me.”

Michigan has trouble defensively from the start and fell behind early as it couldn’t slow down Pickett, who made his first six shots in a variety of ways.

Pickett backed down sophomore guard Kobe Bufkin in the post and got to his spot for a pair of buckets inside. He found the soft spot in Michigan’s zone for a mid-range jumper. He took advantage of a mismatch when junior center Hunter Dickinson was guarding him twice, canning a 3-pointer and hitting another jumper to give Penn State a 16-8 lead with 13:55 left in the first half.

"He's always a matchup problem," Jett Howard said of Pickett. "They're always trying to find weak links on defense and go at them. They had us scrambling ... and once we help off Pickett, they kick it off to those guys who can all shoot. That was tough and then we just weren't bodying out on screens."

The Wolverines countered with Jett Howard, who carried the scoring load early on and made his first seven shots. After draining back-to-back 3-pointers to open the scoring for Michigan, he went on a personal 7-0 run that featured a fall-away jumper and another deep ball that cut it to 16-15.

But Michigan’s defense had no answer for Pickett and Penn State. He quickly put an end to Howard’s flurry with a 3-pointer of his own and got downhill off a ball screen, finished through contact at the rim and converted a three-point play to put the Nittany Lions up, 26-19.

The Wolverines managed to claw back behind Howard, who knocked down a deep jumper and a high-arcing 3-pointer to make it 31-30 at the 4:34 mark. But from there, the game went off the rails as the tight contest quickly turned into a blowout.

“They presented a lot of problems. With the 3s that were being made and then getting points in the paint, we didn't do a good job of stopping them,” Juwan Howard said. “I will go back and watch film. I will also go back and look myself in the mirror and say it starts with me. I can do better.”

jhawkins@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @jamesbhawkins