Seven-foot center Robbie Jackson did not take the trip north to take on UMBC’s toughest opponent yet, Penn State. With Justin Fry and Jamar Wertz still on the bench with their knee injuries, the injury to Jackson left UMBC with just nine available players for the game.

Ten minutes into the game that number went down even more when leading scorer Chauncey Gilliam was taken out of the game with a sprained ankle and did not return.

With the injuries UMBC was left with eight players, only one of whom was taller than 6’5″. That lack of players and size did not add up for a victory over the Nittany Lions, who had the size, depth, and talent to outmatch any set of players UMBC put on the court.

For the majority of the game UMBC ran a five guard set with six players: Chris De La Rosa, Shawn Grant, Matt Spadafora, Brian Neller, Adrian Satchell, and Nick Groce.

De La Rosa and Neller led the team with 10 points each. De La Rosa also matched his season average, dishing out six assists, while adding four steals. Neller stole three Penn State possessions but more importantly scored two of UMBC’s four three-pointers. The other two were from Groce who scored six points. Grant and Satchell also scored six points while Satchell grabbed a team high five rebounds.

As fatigue set in down the stretch the offense failed to get going and only shot 32.11% from the field and 18.2% from three-point range in a 42 point effort.

But defensively UMBC played their best game of the season. While they have given up 74.1 points per game, they held Penn State to just 58 points.

With the five guards in a 2-3 zone the Nittany Lions shot poor from the field, going just 39.1% from the field and 19.0% from three-point range.

For the first half of action UMBC kept the game close. They went into the intermission down just four points, but could not hold up the effort and were outscored 31-19 in the second half.

UMBC is now 0-8 and will take on Rider on Saturday at 2:00 p.m.