March 20, 2018
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MILWAUKEE, Wis. - Sophomore forward Lamar Stevens tied his career best with 30 points, scoring 10 points in the fourth quarter, to lead the Penn State men's basketball team to an 85-50 win at Marquette.
The No. 4 seed Nittany Lions head to the semifinals of the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) for a Tuesday, March 27, contest vs. Mississippi State. This will be Penn State's sixth appearance in the semifinals in program history.
Three Nittany Lions scored in double figures with sophomore forward Tony Carr adding 25 points, including seven of his 11 free throws in the final 41 seconds of the game. He also had seven assists. Senior guard Shep Garner, who eclipsed the 1,600-point mark for his career, had five three pointers to set a new Penn State's single-season mark with 112. He finished with 19 points on the night.
Penn State led the game for 37:17, dominated with 40 points in the paint to Marquette's 24 and shot 53.4 percent for the game, boosted by a 69.2 percent in the first quarter.
Stevens opened the fourth quarter with two-straight jumpers to give the Nittany Lions their largest leads of the night at 14, but Marquette would stage a comeback attempt with under five minutes remaining. The Golden Eagles' Andrew Rowsey and Sam Hauser combined for 17 points in the final period to cut Penn State's double-digit lead to three with just six seconds remaining.
Marquette outscored Penn State 29-22 in the final period, but the Nittany Lions held off the rally.
The Golden Eagles started the fourth quarter 2-7 from the field as the Nittany Lions held a 67-57 lead, but Hauser hit back-to-back 3-pointers and Markus Howard hit two free throws to trim the lead to four with 3:19 left in the game.
Nittany Lion Garner had a layup in between for the Lions, but junior guard Josh Reaves scored his first points of the night with a 3-point shot from the right corner to put Penn State back up by seven, 72-65.
Stevens took over again with three-straight baskets for the Lions, countering three free throws by Rowsey and a Howard jumper to keep the margin at eight. Carr pushed the lead back to 10 with two free throws, 80-70, with 41 ticks left.
Marquette sent Carr to the line four times in the final 32 seconds while getting additional five more points from Rowsey, and two from Howard. Carr connected on his final two free throws with five seconds, and Howard's last 3-point attempt missed for the final, 85-80.
Penn State built a six-point lead in the first quarter as Stevens as 5-6 for 12 points and Garner broke the 22-22 tie, following a Rowsey trey, with a 3-pointer for a Nittany Lion 25-22. Both teams shot well with the Nittany Lions going 9-13 for 69.2 percent and Marquette 8-13 for 61.2 percent.
Carr led the Lions in scoring in the second quarter with eight points coming off three baskets and two free throws. Both graduate student Julian Moore and freshman forward John Harrar were 1-1 from the field to contributed to Penn State's 58.3 field goal percentage. Both teams had four turnovers, giving Penn State eight in the first half and Marquette seven.
Penn State extended its lead to 13 in the third quarter with eight points each from Garner and Carr.
Reaves added five assists to his stat line. Freshman forward John Harrar pulled down a game-high and career best nine rebounds for Penn State.
Rowsey finished the night with 29 as Marquette's leading scorer, 18 points coming off 3-pointers, and Howard was also over 20 points with 21. Hauser had 13. John Theo was the top rebounder for the Golden Eagles and tied for a share of the game-high with nine.
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.
Tickets for the semifinal game at Madison Square Garden in New York City are available at ticketmaster.com. Penn State students tickets will go on sale Thursday, March 22 at 10 a.m. through the student ticket center.
For information or to make a 2018-19 Penn State men's basketball season ticket deposit, fans should go to nittanylionfeedback.com/se/3FF63F244373D7BF or call 1-800-NITTANY, weekdays from 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
Keep up to date with the latest information from Coach Patrick Chambers and the Nittany Lions on Twitter by following @Coach_Chambers and @PennStateMBB, liking the team's page on Facebook and following the team Instagram account at @PennStateMBB.