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UNIVERSITY PARK -- Derek Simpson tied his career high with 16 points, including the go-ahead three-point play in the closing seconds, Cam Spencer scored 11 of his 13 in the second half and Rutgers rallied from a 19-point deficit to beat Penn State 59-56 Sunday night.
"We got outcoached, and I have to put our guys in a better position to be successful if we're going to win a game like this," Penn State coach Micah Shrewsberry said. "It's disappointing that we lost it, because we had a 19-point lead in the second half, but we're back to work tomorrow to clean up what we need to clean up and get ready for our next game."
Caleb McConnell added 12 points for Rutgers (18-11, 10-8 Big Ten) and Clifford Omoruyi scored nine points and grabbed 13 rebounds.
Simpson, a 6-foot-3 freshman, went around a screen by Omoruyi, drove the right side of the lane and was fouled as he made a driving layup. He hit the and-1 free throw with 1:24 left to make it 57-56. Seth Lundy missed to 3-point shots on Penn State's next offensive possession and, after Simpson missed a driving left-hand layup, Omoruyi grabbed the offensive rebound and his putback with 36 seconds to play capped the scoring.
Camren Wynter led (17-12, 8-10) with 16 points and Jalen Pickett had 11 points, nine rebounds and five assists. Lundy -- who went into the game second on the Nittany Lions in scoring at 15.2 per game -- finished with seven points and eight rebounds but made just 1 of 16 from the field, 0 of 11 from behind the arc.
"Three of our better shooters went 1-for-19," Shrewsberry said. "They are shooting open shots. Hat's off to Rutgers. We needed to adjust and go to something different. It's like I said, I got outcoached."
Kebba Njie made a layup that gave Penn State a 10-point lead with 9:16 left in the game but the Nittany Lions went 0 for 14 from the field and committed five turnovers from there. McConnell scored seven points in an 11-1 run that made it 54-all when his 3-pointer capped the spurt with 2:36 remaining. Lundy made two free throws to put Penn State back in front about a minute later.
"We got a little stagnant," Wynter said. "The ball stopped moving, players stopped moving. We just didn't execute at the end of the game, point blank."
Penn State used a 21-2 first-half run to take a 16 point lead midway through the first half and Lundy's dunk with 17:02 to play capped a 13-2 spurt to open the second half and gave the Nittany Lions a 42-23 lead. Spencer answered 15 seconds later with a 3-pointer and Oscar Palmquist made two more 3s as the Scarlet Knights scored 18 of the next 24 points to trim its deficit to seven points when McConnell made a layup with 10:37 to play.
Penn State plays at No. 21 Northwestern on Wednesday.
RUTGERS (18-11): Hyatt 1-6 0-0 3, Omoruyi 4-9 1-4 9, McConnell 5-11 0-1 12, Mulcahy 0-6 0-0 0, Spencer 5-11 2-2 13, Simpson 6-14 4-4 16, Palmquist 2-3 0-0 6, Woolfolk 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-61 7-11 59.
PENN ST. (17-12): Njie 3-5 2-4 8, Funk 1-7 0-0 3, Pickett 5-9 0-1 11, Wynter 6-9 1-3 16, Lundy 1-16 5-5 7, Dread 0-1 0-0 0, Henn 2-3 0-0 6, Clary 2-4 0-0 5, Mahaffey 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-54 8-13 56.
Halftime--Penn St. 31-21. 3-Point Goals--Rutgers 6-18 (Palmquist 2-3, McConnell 2-6, Spencer 1-2, Hyatt 1-4, Simpson 0-1, Mulcahy 0-2), Penn St. 8-29 (Wynter 3-5, Henn 2-2, Pickett 1-1, Clary 1-2, Funk 1-7, Dread 0-1, Lundy 0-11). Fouled Out--Mulcahy. Rebounds--Rutgers 37 (Omoruyi 13), Penn St. 36 (Pickett 9). Assists--Rutgers 9 (McConnell 4), Penn St. 11 (Pickett 5). Total Fouls--Rutgers 15, Penn St. 12. A--12,082 (15,261).