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Krauser’s 28 points lift Pitt(7-0) to 84-71 win against PSU:

“Midway through the first half yesterday, Pitt was faced with its first adversity of the season. Penn State had just gone on a 15-2 run and taken a one-point lead with 5:25 remaining before halftime.

“On the road for the first time and getting blitzed by the home team, the Panthers needed a boost. In stepped Carl Krauser, down went the Nittany Lions.

“Krauser took over the final 25 minutes, leading the No. 11 Panthers to an 84-71 victory at the Bryce Jordan Center. Krauser scored 21 of his career-high 28 points after Penn State took its only lead. He was 11 for 18 from the field with six assists, two steals and three turnovers in one of his best performances of his career.

” ‘I had one of those Isiah Thomas flashbacks,’ Krauser said afterward. ‘It was time to take over the game.

” ‘As a point guard, there’s a certain time in the game where you can’t let your team down. You have to have the passion in your heart to know that you have to do something. I wasn’t going to let my team lose. I wasn’t going to let us go out like that.

” ‘I just wanted to pick it up and give my team a big emotional lift and lead by example.’

“The Panthers (7-0) answered Penn State’s run with a 15-5 run of their own to end the half. Krauser scored five of those 15 points and adeptly ran the offense as Pitt built a 44-35 advantage at intermission after Ronald Ramon made a 3-pointer at the buzzer for his only points of the game ….”

Centre Daily Times | Pitt turns back Nittany Lions:

“Mike Walker looked first at Carl Krauser, then at the healthy cushion Pittsburgh’s junior point guard was giving him at the top of the key.

Then the Penn State freshman calmly released the ball and watched it arc some 27 feet into the basket.

” ‘I turned my head,’ Krauser recalled later, ‘and I saw the three-ball go up from yesterday.’

“Walker and the Nittany Lions were full of surprises during Saturday’s intrastate showdown with the No. 11 Panthers, full of energy and full of resolve.

“They could have used a little defense.

“Behind a masterful floor game from Krauser, who scored a career-high 28 points, the Panthers (7-0) shot 58 percent from the field and led for all but 39 seconds of a 84-71 win before a revved-up crowd of 11,980 at the Bryce Jordan Center. “

Lions’ grit, errors evident:

“On the surface, a 13-point home loss doesn’t look so encouraging. Unless you saw what the Pittsburgh Panthers did to Penn State last year.

“Aaron Johnson had the best seat in the house — the visiting bench at Pitt’s Petersen Center. The PSU center was recovering from a detached retina and couldn’t play. So he had to watch his teammates get intimidated and obliterated, 64-37. They trailed at one point 41-11. His memories:

” ‘Embarrassment. Domination. Outclassed. Just about everything negative you could possibly feel in a game, I felt. And I didn’t even play.’

“Though Johnson’s Nittany Lions lost 84-71 to the Panthers again yesterday, there was no such fear factor. The Lions didn’t always play smartly, throwing the ball away 17 times. But they played hard and well considering their liabilities and actually were in the game late, down a mere 75-67 with free throws coming at the 2:55 mark.

Johnson bricked the front end of a one-and-one and that was pretty much that. But it was about all he did wrong in a 17-point, zero-turnover effort.

” ‘This year, we’re a tough team,’ said Johnson. ‘To beat Pitt, or to be in the game at the point we were in it, you have to be just as physical as they are. To an extent, I think we followed that.’ “

No. 11 Pittsburgh 84, Penn State 71:

“Pittsburgh found itself in a relatively close game for the first time all season. Point guard Carl Krauser made certain it didn’t stay that way for long.

“Krauser scored a career-high 28 points and No. 11 Pittsburgh held off Penn State flurries in each half for an 84-71 victory Saturday and the Panthers’ third 7-0 start in as many seasons.

“Pitt beat Penn State (5-4) for a fourth consecutive season in an intrastate series that has continued despite an interruption in their long-competitive football rivalry. But this one wasn’t as one-sided as the previous three seasons, when Pitt won by an average of 28 points. “

Pittsburgh vs Penn State (12/11/04 at State College, Pa.):

“Official Basketball Box Score

Pittsburgh vs Penn State

12/11/04 2:00 p.m. at State College, Pa.”

State College, Pa. – December 11, 2004 – Penn State freshman center John Kelly (West Milford, N.J.) has decided to leave the Nittany Lion basketball team and plans on transferring to another institution.

‘We respect John’s decision,’ Penn State head coach Ed DeChellis said. ‘We appreciate all his hard work and will do whatever we can to assist him.’

Kelly red-shirted last season and played in two games this year, logging seven minutes vs. Lock Haven and one minute vs. Western Carolina.”

Pitt’s perfect heading to PSU:

“For reasons only TV types could possibly explain, the play-by-play on this afternoon’s Pittsburgh-at-Penn State men’s basketball broadcast (2 p.m., Fox Sports Pittsburgh) is former NFL bit player and Northwestern star halfback Mike Adamle.

“Adamle is not known for broadcasting hoops. He is known for hosting ‘American Gladiators,’ that once-hot, now-extinct obstacle course contest where amateurs competed bravely against cut-up professional triangle bodies.

“At some point today, the Nittany Lions might feel like they stumbled upon the set — unfortunately, as contestants.

“We took some deserved heat in this space last week for boding ill about the young Lions’ chances at Rutgers. This is an entirely different prospect.

“The Panthers (6-0) are two things the Lions are not: Loaded with NCAA tournament experience and full of cut-up studs in the frontcourt. Penn State will do well just to hang around a while. Anything else would be a tremendous accomplishment. …”

It is believed the CDT will staff the game – Ed.

Centre Daily Times | 12/11/2004 | Penn State not intimidated by Panthers:

“Every shot, every pass will be that much more contested, every possession that much more important.

“Every mistake that much more costly.

“The Pittsburgh Panthers are coming to town, bringing with them one of the nation’s best defenses and a battle-tested nucleus that looks just as strong this season for a 2 p.m. game today at the Bryce Jordan Center. A young Penn State men’s basketball team (5-3) is not intimidated by the No. 11 Panthers (6-0) but knows they command plenty of respect, particularly when the Nittany Lions have the ball.

” ‘They really guard the ball well,’ said Penn State men’s basketball coach Ed DeChellis, whose team is 3-0 at home this season. ‘They really get down and make it tough for you to score, they really make it tough for you to get by them. I think their on-the-ball defense is tremendous, and their pressure is very good.

” ‘When they smell blood, they can really get after you, and maybe even turn it up another notch.’ …”

Panthers Scouting Report: Pitt vs. Penn State

Pitt has enjoyed an edge lately over rival Penn State:

“Penn State junior Aaron Johnson watched the game against Pitt last season from the bench because of an injury. By the time the final buzzer sounded, Johnson had another problem.

“He was sick to his stomach.

“‘It was embarrassing,’ Johnson said. ‘They treated us like little children.’

“A succinct refresher course on what transpired last season at the Petersen Events Center: Penn State scored 11 points in the first half on 4-for-26 shooting and got run out of the gym. Final score, 64-37.

“It’s a game Penn State coach Ed DeChellis would rather forget. And that’s what he preached to his team this week as the Lions prepared for the No. 11 Panthers.

” ‘We have to wipe the slate clean,’ DeChellis said. ‘We can’t change the butt kicking that took place last year.’

“The butt kickings have taken place for the past three years in this series, which dates to 1906. The 144th meeting between these two rival schools will be played 2 p.m. today at the Bryce Jordan Center in University Park.

“Pitt has won the past three games by an average of more than 28 points per game. All have been by 22 points or more. In the previous 94 years of the series, only three other Pitt victories had been by 22 points or more.

” ‘The games have been so lopsided the last three years,’ DeChellis said. ‘That’s a credit to Pitt. It’s kind of hard to call it a rivalry when it’s so one-sided. We hope to change that [today]. We hope to give them a challenge. We have to help our guys believe they can win.’ …”