PENN STATE 75, Kent State 69
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Dec. 23, 2015
LAS VEGAS (AP)- Brandon Taylor scored a career high 29 points and grabbed six rebounds to lead Penn State men's basketball over Kent State 75-69 in the Nittany Lions' final game of the Las Vegas Classic Wednesday night.
Taylor, who had two steals, was 12 of 21 from the field as the Nittany Lions split their two Las Vegas games the past two nights in their first trip out West in 14 years.
Davis Zemgulis added a career-high 11 points and Josh Reaves had 10 for the Nittany Lions (9-4).
Jimmy Hall led Kent State (7-4) with 15 points and eight rebounds, while Kellon Thomas had 12 points.
Trailing by five at halftime, the Golden Flashes rallied to tie it twice, then took the lead on a 3-pointer by Chris Ortiz, who scored nine points in a 9-2 run, for a 57-51 Kent State advantage.
Penn State scored the next six, and took the lead 61-59 and stayed ahead for good on Reaves' emphatic putback dunk with 4:26 left.
The Golden Flashes scored the game's first seven points for their largest lead of the half. The Nittany Lions eventually tied it at 31, and later at 35. Penn State took its first lead, 38-37, on Taylor's fall-away 3-pointer from the right corner with 1:50 left in the half. Taylor closed out the half with another fall-away jumper inside the left arc with six seconds left and Penn State led 42-37 at halftime.
Penn State shot 29 of 59 from the field (49 percent), and outrebounded Kent State 40-29.
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TIP-INS
Although the teams are separated by about 200 miles, this was their first meeting since 2000 during the NIT. The Nittany Lions won that game and reached that tournament's final four. Penn State also now leads the series 13-3.