March 14, 2018
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State used an 11-0 run late in the fourth quarter of its National Invitational first-round game to tie the contest and then secure a 63-57 win over Temple in the Bryce Jordan Center Wednesday night. Junior guard Josh Reaves recorded his second career double-double with 19 points, a game-best, and 11 rebounds.
Penn State advances to play top seed Notre Dame in the second round of the NIT at noon on Saturday, March 17, at the Joyce Center in Notre Dame, Ind.
"That was old school, I call it a Big Five game," said Penn State men's basketball coach Patrick Chambers. "I can't say enough about our guys. At halftime, our leading scorers didn't really score, we had a ton of foul trouble and we had to overcome a lot. That's what the climb is about: handling adversity, going on to the next possession, next quarter. We knew we had plenty of time, but we knew we needed to get stops."
The Owls led for more than 35 minutes of the game with the Nittany Lions getting off to a slow start offensively.
"Give Temple a lot of credit," Chambers said. "They came in here and tried to punch us in the mouth, that's for sure, and these guys were able to find a way at the end."
Senior guard Shep Garner connected on his first field goal with 2:43 left in the game to tie the score at 54. A layup by freshman forward John Harrar initiated by a Garner steal put the Nittany Lions up by two, 56-54, and Garner hit his second triple to extend the lead to five.
Four free throws put Penn State up by eight before Temple's Quinton Rose ended the scoreless stretch with a 3-pointer with 10 seconds remaining.
The Nittany Lions were down by five at the half, 29-24, and won their first game of the 2017-18 season after trailing at the break. Reaves had 13 of Penn State's points by halftime with Nazeer Bostick contributing seven and Julian Moore four. The Nittany Lion bench outscored Temple's reserves 22-7.
Bostick knocked in a jumper with 69 seconds left in the second quarter and then hit a 3-pointer with less than 30 seconds left to cut the Owls' lead from 10 to five.
Temple shot 56.3 percent from the field in the second quarter, but only outscored Penn State by one point, 13-12, despite the Nittany Lions going 4-15 in the same period for 26.7 percent. Temple dominated the scoring in the paint 36-16 but lost the battle of points off turnovers 14-18.
Sophomore forward Lamar Stevens scored all 10 of his points in the third quarter with eight coming at the charity stripe. The final period saw Penn State go 6-10 from the field with a 3-3 performance from beyond the arc.
Three Owls scored in double figures with Shizz Alston, Jr., leading Temple with 15 points and sharing the team lead with four assists. Josh Brown had 14 and Rose 11. Ernest Aflakpui was the top rebounder on the night with 12.
As part of the 2018 NIT, experimental rules were in place which included utilizing a wider lane, the international three-point line, and four 10-minute quarters instead of two 20-minute halves.