Battle's last shot a distant memory for losers Penn State

TUCSON, Ariz. - After the game, reporters quizzed each other on the distance, trying to come to some kind of consensus. Twenty-five feet? Twenty-eight feet? Thirty?

We settled on 28. Whatever, it was the smoothest, sweetest-looking heave-and-a-half you have ever seen - and it really did seem good from the moment it left the hand of Talor Battle, the senior guard from Penn State.

It was a three-pointer with 16 seconds remaining that tied the Nittany Lions' NCAA Tournament game with Temple at 64-64. But because Juan Fernandez one-upped him with a shot in the game's last second, it turned out to be the last shot of Battle's college career.

About the distance, Battle said, "I didn't care, to tell you the truth. Like I said, I just wanted to try to get to wherever I could shoot the ball clearly. All my shots were contested, so I just wanted to get a free one. That happened to be. One guy ran, Tim [Frazier] threw it to me and I just shot it. Right when I shot it it felt so good. I saw [courtside broadcaster] Reggie Miller and them going nuts, so I figured I was pretty far when I shot."

It was the final example of grit shown by a Penn State team that played much of the game without its second-leading scorer, forward Jeff Brooks, who appeared to dislocate an already-cranky shoulder while blocking a shot. Despite that, and a short bench, and an exhausting run to the finals of last weekend's Big Ten Tournament, the Nittany Lions gave the favored Owls everything they could take.

"You know, for the rest of my life I'll know that we didn't just come out here and get beat," Battle said. "You know, it took a heck of a shot from Fernandez to beat us. I bet you one thing, for the rest of our lives we'll be able to watch the 2011 'One Shining Moment' [video on CBS at the end of the tournament] and always have to see that shot. But I thought we fought.

"You know, Jeff goes down, we just kept fighting. Everybody stepped their game up. But, you know, [Temple's] Ramone Moore really took over the game late. Hit big shot after big shot. Just kind of willed them to win. Unfortunately, the kid Fernandez hit a big shot . . . "

Battle finished the game with 23 points, tying Moore and Fernandez. But now, it's over.

"I feel like it was a successful career," Battle said. " . . . Like I said to the coach in the locker room, when one of us five seniors got here this program was very bad at the time, you know. And what we did in 4 years of hard work, you know, two out of those 4 years we had really successful seasons. The first thing I said to the guys, let's keep this going. Everyone sees it as just a football school. You know, let's make this a two-sport program and the basketball keep building." *