Our Clients:

Field Level Media - Professional sports content solutions | FLM

Mar 18, 2023 11:39 pm

Dylan Disu drops 28, No. 2 seed Texas punts Penn State

DES MOINES, Iowa — Dylan Disu dominated with a season-high 28 points and Timmy Allen made Jalen Pickett appear mortal as Texas advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2008 with a 71-66 win over Penn State on Saturday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Disu had 10 points in the final 4 minutes, 32 seconds to rescue Texas from a frigid perimeter shooting effort (1 of 13 from 3-point range). Sir’Jabari Rice added 13 points.

“Just my teammates and coaching staff believing in me and encouraging me to get to my spots,” Disu said after breaking the school record held by Kevin Durant and LaMarcus Aldridge, with 14 made field goals on 20 attempts.

Allen had nine points, 12 rebounds and three assists while harassing Pickett into seven turnovers.

Texas advances to Kansas City, Mo., in the Midwest Region and a matchup with the winner of Sunday’s game between Xavier and Pittsburgh.

Pickett had 11 points and 10 rebounds and Camren Wynter led Penn State with 16 points. Andrew Funk, who made 8 of 10 shot attempts from 3-point range Thursday in the first-round win over Texas A&M, was 2 of 10 from 3-point land and finished with 12 points.

“Dylan Disu was really good, and I thought this is the first time they’ve … somebody has cracked the code of our ball screen defense here recently and he got into the middle and made a bunch of plays,” Penn State coach Micah Shrewsberry said. “But credit to those other guys around him.”

With the clock ticking under one minute, Disu drained a jumper from the wing for a seven-point lead, 65-58, and added two more with 34 seconds remaining on a runout that made it 67-60.

Out of a timeout made possible by Funk beating three Longhorns to a Penn State missed shot, the Nittany Lions turned the ball over and Marcus Carr carved through the lane from left to right, converting a sweeping layup for a 63-58 Texas advantage.

Disu scored on three straight Texas possessions, including a drop-step score to bring the Longhorns back to life for a 61-58 lead with 2:42 left.

“Our game plan offensively was to really own the paint,” Texas interim coach Rodney Terry said. “It was a paint game for us on the offensive end of the floor. We didn’t want to settle. We knew this was a really good offensive team, we had to try to make them work on defense and we wanted to attack the paint all night long. … We knew we had a size advantage, we knew we had a guy that could score the ball that’s playing at a very high level inside as well. Our game plan was to get the ball into the paint and score in the paint.”

Texas’ offense grew stagnant just as Penn State’s backcourt downshifted to take the lead in a span of four offensive possessions. Myles Dread cut the Longhorns’ lead to four points with a transition 3-pointer and sliced it to one when he connected from deep once again just under a minute later. Pickett was called for an offensive foul, his fourth, but after another stop, Penn State grabbed a 56-55 lead with 5:12 to go. A steal and Seth Lundy layup made it a 10-0 run, provided a three-point Penn State lead and brought a Texas timeout.

Terry quickly called for the ball to go back to Disu.

Before the under-8 timeout in the second half, Rice made Texas’ first 3-pointer of the night and the Longhorns, who missed their first 11 tries from deep, held a 55-48 lead.

Pickett picked up his third foul attempting to swat Christian Bishop at the rim. Bishop split the two free throws and Texas held a 48-41 edge with 10 minutes left.

Texas led Penn State 31-23 at halftime, bottling up Pickett and forcing him into five turnovers with just five points in the first 20 minutes.

–Field Level Media

You may also like

Joel Embiid
Apr 26, 2024 12:08 am

Joel Embiid plays through Bell’s palsy: ‘Pretty annoying’

Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid produced his best-ever postseason performance on Thursday despite dealing with the facial condition Bell’s palsy. The problem began more than a week ago. “Pretty annoying…

knicks
Apr 25, 2024 10:45 pm

Joel Embiid’s 50 points power 76ers to Game 3 win vs. Knicks

Joel Embiid set a playoff career-high with 50 points to lift the host Philadelphia 76ers past the New York Knicks 125-114 to cut the Eastern Conference first round series deficit…

magic
Apr 25, 2024 9:33 pm

Magic crush Cavaliers to halve series deficit to 2-1

Paolo Banchero collected 31 points and 14 rebounds to fuel the host Orlando Magic to a convincing 121-83 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday in Game 3 of their…

More Basketball News

Joel Embiid
Apr 26, 2024 12:08 am

Joel Embiid plays through Bell’s palsy: ‘Pretty annoying’

Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid produced his best-ever postseason performance on Thursday despite dealing with the facial condition Bell’s palsy. The problem began more than a week ago. “Pretty annoying…

knicks
Apr 25, 2024 10:45 pm

Joel Embiid’s 50 points power 76ers to Game 3 win vs. Knicks

magic
Apr 25, 2024 9:33 pm

Magic crush Cavaliers to halve series deficit to 2-1

Bradley Beal
Apr 25, 2024 7:56 pm

Suns return home in critical situation against series-leading Wolves

stephen curry
Apr 25, 2024 7:45 pm

Stephen Curry named NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year

Read all
fb-post
advertisment
title-icon

Upcoming events

See all odds
Array