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Penn State tops VMI basketball in season opener, 62-50

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vmi_logoA 17-3 run that began early in the second half broke open a close game and helped send the Penn State Nittany Lions past the VMI Keydets, 62-50, in non-conference basketball action Saturday afternoon in State College, Pa. The game was the season opener for both teams.

The first half of the contest was a defensive struggle, as Penn State (1-0) took a 29-24 lead to the locker room. It was still a five-point game, 31-26, at the 18:30 mark, but the Nittany Lions started the 17-3 spurt with a Payton Banks jumper just over a minute later to go up 48-29 and the Keydets (0-1) got no closer than 12 the rest of the way.

Julian Eleby led the Keydets with 13 points, but Penn State held VMI to 36.7% from the field (18 of 49). Shep Garner led Penn State with 15 markers.

VMI guard Q.J. Peterson was limited to 3 of 18 shooting from the floor and finished with eight points to go along with a team leading four assists. VMI forward Trey Chapman hit four of seven shots from the field to finish with nine points and four rebounds and senior forward Phillip Anglade scored eight points and collected a team-high six rebounds. Freshman guard Adrian Rich scored six points and had two rebounds in his college debut.

The Keydets, facing a much taller Penn State squad, were limited to seven assists and committed 14 turnovers that were converted into 13 points for the home team. The Nittany Lions also outscored VMI in the paint, 30-16.

Brandon Taylor scored 13 points with six rebounds and Payton Banks added 12 points and six boards to round out the double-figures scoring for Penn State, which claimed its 11th straight season opener dating back to 2005.

After a game opening dunk by Penn State’s Josh Reaves, the Keydets followed with a 3-pointer by Eleby that keyed a 12-4 spurt. Eleby canned another trey at the 15:51 mark to push the lead to 10-4 and a follow-up jumper by Chapman gave VMI its largest lead of the game, 15-8, just seconds out of the first media timeout.

Penn State would rally with consecutive baskets by Garner, Julian Moore, and Taylor to pull within one, but Eleby countered with a jumper to push the VMI lead to 14-11. The Keydets led until the 8:51 mark when Donovan Jack took a Banks assist for a dunk that put the home team ahead for the rest of the afternoon. A Devin Foster layup gave Penn State its largest lead of the half, 24-18, with 6:13 remaining.

A Jordan Weethee 3-pointer pulled VMI within 27-24 with :58 left in the half, but that would be as close as VMI could be for the game.

The teams swapped baskets to start the second half before PSU embarked on its decisive scoring run. A Jack jumper gave the NittanyLions their first double-digit lead at 36-26 and a Moore jumper at the 14:34 mark kept the lead in double-digits throughout the rest of regulation. VMI went scoreless through a stretch of nearly six minutes as PSU took control of the game.

Penn State assumed its largest lead at 20 points when Garner drained a 3-pointer to make it 51-31 with 7:58 left. The Keydets sliced the lead to 12 point three times over the last 3:31 but could come no closer.

Despite the height disadvantage, VMI was outrebounded just 38-33 and was down just one board at the half. The Keydets shot 47.4% from the floor in the second half (9-19) after going 9 of 30 from the floor in the first half. VMI also shot better beyond the arc than PSU, going 7 of 22 compared to 5 of 19 for the hosts, but the Keydet offense was stymied by five Penn State blocks.

The Keydets return to action Tuesday night when they open up the home schedule against Tusculum College at 7:30 p.m. at Cameron Hall.

Press Conference: VMI coach Dan Earl “First of all, I want to thank Penn State for having us back. It was kind of an emotional game for me. But when the ball’s tipped up you’re a competitor and to be honest, it was a tough game as you saw. We’re changing styles of play a little bit and we’ve worked a lot as a team and the guys are trying to learn and listen and do the right things, but it was a little disappointing – our ball movement was not good today. Certainly, the guys aren’t trying to miss shots –we didn’t shoot it a high percentage, obviously. But we would have liked to move the ball much better than we did. I thought the ball was stagnant way too much. They have some length and size and like to block shots. Their size affected us, but I would have liked to have seen us take care of the ball better and share the ball a little bit better. The guys tried to compete, but we have to get better and we certainly will.”

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