I Wednesday, March 31, 2010 Bowman From Page 8. season scoring record his senior year, averaging about 24.5 points per game. Knox called Bowman a relent less worker who was always in the gym shooting. Because Bowman was under sized and young for his grade level, he made the decision to go to St. Thomas More to fulfill his dream of playing at a big-time school, Knox said. West Virginia’s Devin Ebanks also played at the all-boys Catholic private prep school in Connecticut. “Everybody [at St. Thomas More] was going on to a high major school, so I knew that it was Loss From Page 8. three or four. As much as we wanted to be con fident, we just let it get to us.” The Lions got off to a slow start, trailing 4-1 at the end of the first. They had to come from behind all game and never gained a lead. A second quarter paced by three goals from Mackrides kept the Lions in contention, hav ing fought to a 5-5 tie with 3:04 remaining before halftime. But the Lions were never able to string together a streak of goals to go ahead. “That’s the way the game goes when it’s just up and down,” junior Chris Hogan said. “With us, they’ll go up and we’ll come right back. But we just gotta keep fighting.” The Bison dominated the battles at midfield, winning 15 of the 22 faceoffs. Penn State continuously rotated four differ ent players in and out of faceoff duties, but none were able to figure out Bucknell’s Jake Clarke, who only sat out one faceoff for the Bison, going 15-for-21. “It was so key to the outcome of the game,” Fedorjaka said of Clarke’s efforts. “There were almost 100 groundballs in the game tonight, and for us to win more than 70 percent of the faceoffs was just huge in such a close game.” Both teams acknowledged the high level of physicality, which was expected going into a Shoes From Page 8. Kobe Hyperdunks a basketball lowcut. Freshman Tom Comfort, who made the switch, said he likes the lightness and trac tion of his new kicks. He said shoes are an important part of the game—but not some thing he wants to be thinking about when he’s on the court. When players kept finding complaints with the shoe, they met with the captains and decided to tiy something different. But, as per Lions’ policy, it had to be Nike. All Your Zeno's Favorites going to be hard,” Bowman said. “I had to work for my spot. I worked on it every day in the gym at 6:45 in the morning. It made me a whole better of a player.” When asked how he’d describe himself as a player, Bowman pointed to his athleticism and his ability to throw down a between the-legs dunk. “I would say I’m a very good shooter, and I can play above the rim,” Bowman said. “Be on the lookout for some exciting dunks.” He is set to graduate from the prep school May 10 and will enroll in classes during Penn State's first summer session in late May, he said. Bowman met with all the coach es this weekend. They sat the recruit down in a conference room, where they outlined their Freshman attacker Billy Gribbin moves the ball upheld in Penn State's loss to Bucknell. game between two teams that have played against each other for 42-straight years. Despite Penn State's persistence when trailing, Bucknell's ability’ to keep up the offen sive pressure was too much for the Lions. “We were just thinking if we can shut them out, our offensive will take care of business,” defenseman Earl Ross said. "But after a cou ple of long defensive possessions, we just got really tired in the fourth and they took advan tage of us when we were sleeping." In 1996 Penn State signed an undisclosed contract with Nike reported to be four years, $2.6 million which involves adver tising and marketing considerations. It also requires all Penn State athletes to wear only the company's apparel. The contract has since been renewed. “Nike’s not really a volleyball company,” Price said. “They make some nice stuff, but we get running shoes and basketball shoes and stuff. Asics and Mizuno are volleyball companies, so naturally they’ll be a little bit more tailored to what we need.” When Price plays with the U.S. national team during the summer, he wears ™ E 0 W PAPER PLATE DINING GUIDE powered by StateCollege.com Go to PSUCOLLEGtAN.COM SPORTS plan for him to contribute to the team next season. The coaches told him he’d compete with Cammeron Woodyard, Jermaine Marshall and incoming freshman Taran Buie for playing time. “The coaches told me how much they loved my game,” Bowman said. “Coach DeChellis said if I come in and don’t play and don’t get a lot of time, that he’ll be disappointed because he knows what I’m capable of, and he knows that they need a shooter.” Bowman wasn’t deterred by the Lions' unsuccessful 11-20 season this year because of their National Invitation Tournament champi onship in 2009, he said. •Hopefully with the players we have coming in next year, we’ll have a real good year,” he said. Evan Daniels, a national scout- To e-mail reporter: massB6o@psu.edu it =i ?\U im ing director for Scout.com, said he saw Bowman play twice and observed improvement in the guard’s play during the second occasion. At the National Prep School Invitational in early February, Daniels said Bowman showcased a nice mid-range game and attacked the rim with consistency. “I was pretty intrigued because of his size and his athletic ability,” Daniels said. “He really didn’t have any trouble attacking the rim and scoring around the basket.” Jerry Palm, a college basketball analyst for Collegebcs.com, said signing a shooter would benefit the Lions by taking pressure off guard Talor Battle, but the real area of improvement is at the for ward position. “Honestly, I think this team Mistakes From Page 8. evident all game, from Charley Henneghan’s frequent false starts on faceoffs, in which Bucknell won 15 of 22 faceoffs, to the Bison’s 52-43 advantage in groundballs in a physi cal contest. Baker had one of his strongest games as a Lion with 17 saves, but it was a mental mistake in the third quarter that symbolized Penn State’s struggles Tuesday. After a save, Baker pushed the ball up all the way to midfield, trying to catch Bucknell off guard. But his pass went directly to a Bison player, and eventually Bucknell attacker Austin Winter calmly brought the ball back down the field. Winter converted with a goal into a partially defended net as Baker rushed to get back in the cage, mak ing the score 7-5. “We’re always on the back end of those,” Bucknell coach Frank Pedoijaka said. “Penn State scored an open-goal net earlier, and later in the game they threw it down, and [Chris] Hogan actually came up with a groundball Mizunos, which he calls the best shoes he’s ever worn. “But we have to wear Nike here,” he said. “So it’s whatever.” Even the company recognizes it doesn’t specialize in the sport. Nike does put some development into volleyball shoes, but not as much its larger categories like running, basketball and soc cer, said Dr. Mario Lafortune, director of the Nike Sport and Research Laboratory. Lafortune said he was surprised some Penn State volleyball players preferred their basketball models. “But at the end of the day,” he said. “It PENN STATE CHEERLEADING RECEIVES TOP 20 NATIONAL RANKING! CONGRATULATIONS, goes out to the 2009-2010 PENN STATE CHEERLEADING team. This year the team was a National Finalist, placing in the top 20, with a 14th place ranking to end the year. Another major team accomplishment was surpassing cheerleading powerhouse, University of Tennessee PENN STATE is the only first tier university (US News and World Report) to place in the top 20. Fourteen of the nineteen team members that attended the competition were also successful in making the Dean's List for the Fall semester of 2009. The team placed 7th in the semi-final round and finished 14th overall. Also competing was a Penn State All-girl partner stunt group which finished 10th nationally. Under Coach White the team has made it to Finals numerous times and have received two of the three PENN STATE Cheerleading National Championships associated with the program. PENN STATE Cheerleading has also qualified for national coverage on ESPN/ESPN2 many times in this period. "It's an honor to be part of such a great cheerleading program and athletic department. The students make being a part of this program an exciting and fun experience for me, said Coach White" The UCA College Cheerleading Championship is deemed as the most competitive in the nation and is held annually at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Look for the team on ESPN and ESPN2 throughout the year. Nittany Lion Pride (the PENN STATE Cheerleading, Lionettes, and Nittany Lion mascot booster club) wish to extend another (Photo includes the coaches, trainer, and the Penn State Cheerleading team members) This is an ad sponsored by the Nittany Lion Pride Booster Club comes down to the individual athlete and trainer’s preference.” Some players still prefer the volleyball models. Sophomore Ryan Wolf likes the gum sole, which is specific to the sport. Ultimately, Price said, shoes make a dif ference but only to an extent. In November, the senior co-captain land ed awkwardly off a block, spraining his right ankle. But he doesn’t blame it on Nike. “I would have just blown my ankle out no matter what,” he said. “It was just a bad sprain. Nike, Asics, Mizuno, whatever.” and Florida State CONGRATULATIONS to the team!!! The Daily Collegian needs a force inside and they need some toughness,” Palm said. “I thought they played a little tougher as the year went on, and got better at the end of the year, but I really thought they were exposed inside, and what they really needed was a little more force inside.” Bowman is excited to play with Battle and the rest of the Lions. He scrimmaged with the team this weekend and went out to din ner with the coaching staff, Battle and Buie at Damon’s Grill, too. “[Taran and Talor] both wanted me to come there because they had seen some of my highlight clips and heard about me,” Bowman said. “Taran is a real good guy and Talor is too.” To e-mail reporter: slhso37@psu.edu and Penn State converted. So we finally got one of those.” The missed opportunities also showed up on offense, as the Lions missed close chances numerous times during the game. No mistakes were more glaring than those in the fourth quarter, when Penn State fired shots that flew just wide of Bison freshman goalie Kyle Feeney. The missed shots proved disas trous as the game wore on. Bucknell went on a run of four unanswered goals in the fourth to break a 7-7 tie and left the outcome no longer in doubt. And after the postgame handshake line dissipated, Penn State attacker Billy Gribbin sat on the turf and leaned back against the bleachers. The rest of his teammates were left to wonder what if. “We made too many mistakes, and mistakes led to goals,” Penn State coach Glenn Thiel said. “Like I told the team at the end, we have a stretch now where we have to play with the same kind of fire and the same kind of intensity. But we gotta eliminate the mistakes.” To e-mail reporter: tecso26@psu.edu To e-mail reporter: exkso49@psu.edu
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers