Colorado 71, PENN STATE 70
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Dec. 23, 2015
LAS VEGAS (AP) - The Penn State Nittany Lions could not finish a late comeback, falling to the Colorado Buffaloes, 71-70, in the Las Vegas Classic Tuesday night. Penn State nearly overcame a 10-point deficit with four minutes remaining.
Shep Garner led Penn State (8-4) with 26 points, while Payton Banks added 14 and six rebounds.
Josh Scott scored 18, grabbed 8 rebounds and had 4 blocks to lead Colorado. Josh Fortune recorded 13 points, while Dominique Collier added 12 as the Buffaloes (11-1) won their 11th straight.
Colorado received votes in this week's Associated Press poll and has the fifth longest winning streak in team history. This is Colorado's best start since 1941-42, when it began 14-0 and eventually went to the Final Four.
Colorado built its largest lead at 64-53 with 4 minutes left. But the Nittany Lions trimmed the lead to 68-65 with 26 seconds left and 71-70 with one second left on a Garner 3, but could not foul before the final buzzer.
The momentum switched to Colorado's favor after Penn State's Brandon Taylor hit a wide-open 3-pointer from the left corner to put Penn State up 34-31 with 16:27 left in the game. However, Taylor was seen yelling at a referee and was hit with a technical foul. Despite two missed technical free throws by Scott, Colorado then went on an 8-0 run as Taylor sat.
Taylor returned and the run ended on a Banks layup.
With 21 seconds left in the game, Collier hit 1 of 2 free throws to make it 69-65. Garner responded on a driving right-side layup with 15 seconds remaining.
The Buffaloes nearly turned the ball over in front of the Penn State bench on the in-bounds pass, but the ball landed in the hands of George King, who converted two free throws with 8 seconds left.