Today, the Penn State men’s basketball team played La Salle in the Autumn Invitational inside the Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia.
La Salle took a quick 5-0 lead before Melih Tunca knocked in a three to make it 5-3 at the 18:02 mark.
At the first media timeout (15:48) it was Penn State 7, La Salle 5 behind two free throws from Josh Reed and a jumper from Freddie Dilione.
Penn State and La Salle kept trading baskets and the Nittany Lions were rotating in fresh players from their deep bench. Ivan Juric kept the pressure on by scoring 4 points around the hoop. Tibor Mirtic then had a nice offensive rebound in transition and put-back hoop, and Dominick Stewart had an and-1 to make the score 16-12 at the media timeout (11:47).
Behind three-point goals from Dominick Stewart and Melih Tunca and a fast break hoop from Tunca, Penn State extended the lead to 27-12 with 8:43 to play in the first half. LaSalle was forced to use one of their timeouts.
The Nittany Lions were on fire. They were shooting 71.4% from 3-point range and 63.6% from 2-point range.
At halftime, Penn State was leading La Salle 42-29. Tunca led the onslaught with 10 points, followed by Dilione’s 7, and Mingo and Juric had 6 points apiece.
To start the second half, Penn State’s freshman star, Kayden Mingo, scored a quick 6 points out of the gate and at the media timeout (15:43), it was the Nittany Lions 52, Explorers 36.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.A persistent, balanced, scoring attack and solid rebounding allowed Penn State to extend their lead to 17, making the score 59-42 (12:57).
The Explorers could not keep up with the Nittany Lions ball movement that led to open shots. At the 8:50 mark, it was Penn State 70, La Salle 49. Tunca was leading the way with 15 points, Mingo and Dilione with 12 points apiece and Juric had 11.
La Salle started to make a late run and they cut the lead to 16 (77-61) with 3:50 left to play. They had the deficit to 10 with 2:00 minutes to play.
The Nittany Lions, though, did not let their lead go below ten.
Final Score: Penn State 83, LaSalle 69
Penn State improves to 4-0 and their next game is against the Harvard Crimson on Wednesday, November 19 at 6:30 P.M. inside the Bryce Jordan Center.
