Purdue 65 - Penn State 64: A recap

What happened?

That's probably the question most Penn State basketball fans (there are some) are asking themselves Sunday morning following a frankly confusing 65-64 loss at Purdue on Saturday night.

A short recap, for those who might have missed the game broadcast on ESPNU or, in my case, the WatchESPN app on my iPhone:

Leading Purdue 64-61 with less than 18 seconds left to play, Boilermakers' guard Terone Johnson nailed a 3-pointer with 7 seconds left on the clock to tie the game. Penn State guard D.J. Newbill grabbing the inbounds and racing toward half court, the Nittany Lions called timeout with just more than 4 seconds remaining.

Newbill, inbounding from midcourt toward a popping Tim Frazier at the elbow extended, lobbed a pass to Frazier that seemed to be in the fifth-year senior's hands, but bounded away due to a defensive play made by Purdue's Ronnie Johnson.

Here's how Chambers recapped the play in his one-question post-game press conference at Mackey Arena.

"Frazier is supposed to get the ball at half court, which is exactly what he did," Chambers said. "Ronnie Johnson makes a great play. He rips it out of his hands.

"We got exactly what we wanted, he was open. He's gotta turn, face and go. We're in the double bonus. It just didn't happen that way."

Instead, Johnson raced into the open court, at which point Purdue coach Matt Painter called timeout.

Off the inbounds, Chambers lined up his 7-footer Jordan Dickerson on the sideline, choosing to put his junkyard dog Ross Travis up against Purdue center A.J. Hammons.

Travis was called for a foul on the subsequent pass, sending Hammons to the line to convert the first of two free throws with 0.4 seconds left on the clock to effectively seal the loss for Penn State, sending the Nittany Lions to 0-6 in the Big Ten.

Here was Chambers' take on the inbounds and foul that would directly lead to the loss:

"Then on the other end, I thought we were set up properly," he said. "We did a good job with 1.4 and a 7-footer on the ball and our toughest, most athletic guy in Brandon Taylor and Ross Travis, and Hammons did a good job."

With that, Chambers sat for a moment before asking for anymore questions. With no Penn State media in attendance, he offered a good night to the Purdue media and stepped down from the podium.

From our friends at GoldAndBlack.com, a recap from the scene worth checking out.