A roar in the Garden
NEW YORK - A couple of hours before the NIT title game, hundreds of Penn State fans waited outside Madison Square Garden, forming a tunnel leading from the arena entrance to the curb.
When the Nittany Lions' bus pulled up the chants began "We are ... Penn State." One by one the players filed quietly into the arena, until Jamelle Cornley stepped off the bus and pumped his fist, the senior forward greeted by delirious roars each time.
It gave a good indication of what was to come.
Cornley scored 18 points and the scrappy Nittany Lions, chasing every loose ball and hustling after every rebound, outlasted Baylor 69-63 Thursday night to win just the second postseason tournament title in school history.
Talor Battle added 12 points, all in the second half, for the Nittany Lions (27-11), who were spurred on by a crowd that included 82-year-old football coach Joe Paterno and more than 30 busloads of fans from State College.
"I think coach said it best yesterday, we couldn't get three buses to go across campus let alone 30 buses to come to Madison Square Garden," said Cornley, the tournament's most valuable player. "To see the program grow and to leave the program on this note, I can honestly say I've given everything I could for this program."
The only other postseason tournament Penn State has won was the Atlantic 10 in 1991.
"After the game, me and 'Melle hugged for a minute," said Battle, a sophomore. "This will last a lifetime."
It was a physical game, and both teams spent most of the night scrambling for every ball in sight. Penn State guard Danny Morrissey was trying to corral a loose one near the scorer's table with about 2Z\x minutes to go and the Nittany Lions leading 57-48 when he slammed his head into the floor, laying motionless on the sideline for a few moments.
Trainers hurried over and tended to the senior, who had a cut above his lip but managed to walk off the floor on his own.
"We have tough kids. We're going to go compete. That's been our trademark all year," Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said. "That play typifies what our team has been like all year."
The Bears trailed 62-50 after Stanley Pringle made a pair of free throws with under 2 minutes left, but they did their best to rally. Tweety Carter's 3-pointer made it 62-55 with just over a minute to go, and he made another with 16.8 seconds left to get within 68-63.
Baylor simply ran out of time.
Battle hit one of two foul shots, and Curtis Jerrells air-balled a 3-point attempt in the closing seconds that set off a jubilant celebration in one end of the Garden, where all those white-clad fans made it look like the endzone of Beaver Stadium on a fall Saturday.
"Penn State had a great following, a great crowd, and they're the ones who hit big shots and won the game," said Baylor coach Scott Drew. "As a coach you never feel bad about that, when a team plays great and wins the game."
LaceDarius Dunn scored 18 points to lead the Bears (24-15), who hadn't won a postseason game since 1950 before their run to the title game. Jerrells added 14 points, and Carter and Kevin Rogers scored 12 each.
