CHICAGO – The Penn State men's basketball team (2-1, 0-0 Big Ten) battled back from a 10-point deficit with 3:41 left in regulation, but DePaul (3-0, 0-0 Big East) outlasted the Nittany Lions in overtime to win the Gavitt Tipoff Games match up, 72-70, Wednesday evening in Wintrust Arena.
Junior forward Lamar Stevens recorded his third-straight game with 20+ points and his second double-double of the season with 25 points and a career-high-tying 12 rebounds.
Freshman Myles Dread netted a career-high 19 points, including five triples, and Josh Reaves added 13 points, tied his career-high total of eight assists and had four steals.
"Heck of a game, I thought DePaul did a lot of really good things…," said Penn State men's basketball coach Patrick Chambers. "Playing on the road for our younger guys, this is going to be a great experience for us, it really is… on our end, we really hurt ourselves with 16 turnovers and giving up so many offensive rebounds. But, what a great learning experience this is going to be for our group, freshmen getting critical minutes…and we are going to build off that and we are going to get better from that."
DePaul's Eli Cain made a field goal within the first minute of the overtime period and then Jalen Coleman-Lands and Matt Strus each added a free throw to give the Blue Demons the four points they needed for the win.
Nittany Lion sophomore forward Trent Buttrick was fouled when pulling down an offensive rebound and hit two free throws with 39 seconds left in the overtime period to cut the deficit to 2, 72-70. Neither of the attempts by either team in the final seconds found the bottom of the net.
In a game of runs, Penn State and DePaul traded double-digit leads as three different Nittany Lions scored in the final 3:41 to erase the Blue Demons' 10-point lead for the 68-68 score at the end of regulation.
Stevens scored five points and Dread, and Jamari Wheeler each had a basket on the offensive side while DePaul missed three shots, had another blocked, missed a pair of free throws, and had three turnovers to leave the door open for Penn State's comeback. Reaves had a steal, block and assist during the period while Wheeler's field goal came on a fast break after his second steal of the night.
In the first half, Penn State stormed to an 11-0 lead and kept DePaul without points until the 15:45 mark. The Blue Demons countered with a run of their own, pulling within four over three minutes before Dread's second 3-point basket extended the Nittany Lions' lead back to seven.
Max Strus and Devin Gage kept pace with Penn State and baskets by Femi Olujobi and Paul Reed tied the score at 19 midway through the half. DePaul grabbed its first lead of the game, 27-26, with 4:20 left in the first half. Three minutes later DePaul had extended it to a seven-point advantage after four Penn State missed shots and three turnovers gave possessions back to the Blue Demons.
Strus finished the game with 21 points for DePaul while Gage added 14 and Olujobi 13. Jaylen Butz collected a game-high 15 rebounds.
"Headed into Cancun, I'm not happy, we lost, I'm not happy, but headed into Cancun, I'm going to feel a little bit better about my squad going through what we just went through," Chambers said.
The Nittany Lions play in the Cancun Challenge next week, facing Wright State on Tuesday, Nov. 20 at 8:30 p.m. ET in Cancun, Mexico. The game will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network and available on both the Penn State Sports Network radio affiliates and online at GoPSUSports.com/lionvision.
Keep up to date with the latest information from Coach Chambers and the Nittany Lions on Twitter by following @Coach_Chambers and @PennStateMBB, on Facebook and Instagram at @PennStateMBB.
