Nittany Lions men basketball team dominates Nebraska

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: February 20, 2019

Courtesy of GoPSU Athletics

Stevens and Bolton Combine for 50 Points; Reaves Reaches 1,000 Career Points

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Lamar Stevens and Rasir Bolton combined for 50 points as the Penn State men’s basketball team rolled to a 95-71 victory over Nebraska in the Bryce Jordan Center Tuesday night. Stevens had a game- and individual season-high 29 points and Bolton a Big Ten career-best 21 points in the win. The 95-point total was the highest in a regulation Big Ten game in Penn State history.

Shooting 55.6 percent from the floor for the game with a season-high 35 field goals on the night, Penn State connected on 11 3-pointers and had 17 assists, five each coming from Josh Reaves and Jamari Wheeler while Wheeler had half of the Nittany Lions’ eight steals.

Reaves and Mike Watkins both contributed 10 points on the night and Reaves scored his 1,000th career point with a 3-pointer at the 2:46mark of the second half. The senior guard is the 36th player in Penn State history to reach that milestone.

“[I’m] really proud of my team and they’re getting better,” said Penn State men’s basketball coach Patrick Chambers. “We were getting better in late January, I could see it. We just didn’t get the results that we wanted and I knew if we just kept improving and kept creating and building and sustaining our identity, that the wins were eventually going to start to happen for us…This first 20 minutes, I could bottle that up on both sides of the floor. This is the team that we’ve been expecting for a long time.”

The two teams traded baskets in the early going of the second half, but Penn State put together an 11-1 run over a four-minutes stretch to take a 61-36 lead with 13:53 left to play. Nebraska’s Isaiah Roby and Thomas Allen cut the deficit to 20 and the lead bounced between 22 and 20 until back-to-back baskets by Bolton.

Stevens, Watkins and Dread all scored on the next three possessions and Stevens rebounded his own attempt for his 29^th point of the night. Reaves hit the bottom of the net with his triple for this 1,00th career point to put Penn State up 90-62 with less than three minutes left in the game.

The Nittany Lions improved on their 50 percent shooting from the floor with a 62.1 percentage in the second half. Penn State led by 19 points, 44-25, at the break, and built the lead to 29 points late in the game.

The offensive efficiency continued from the first period to the second as Stevens and Bolton were a combined 10-14 from the floor from two-point range and Penn State added five 3-pointers with two each from Myles Dread and Reaves and one from freshman guard Myreon Jones.

The Nittany Lions, donning their black and pink uniform combination, raced out to a 13-4 lead early with seven points from Stevens in the first 4:03 and 16 by the half off 6-11 shooting and two 3-pointers. Nebraska went without points just over four minutes while Bolton knocked in two three pointers for a 27-16 score. Reaves tipped in a Stevens miss with 8:32 left in the first half, then Stevens followed with three-straight baskets to push the score to 35-18.

Penn State had the advantage in bench scoring 36-11 and on the glass 36-29. The Nittany Lions converted 11 Husker turnovers into 18 points, but the teams were evenly matched in points in the paint with 36 each and second-chance points 20-18 PSU.

James Palmer Jr. had 24 points for Nebraska while Roby chipped in 17 and Allen had 12. Palmer was also the leading scorer for the Huskers with seven while Allen had a share of the game-high assists with five.

Penn State travels to Illinois for a noon ET game on Saturday, Feb. 23 and returns home to the Bryce Jordan Center Wednesday, Feb. 27for a 6:30 p.m. ET game vs. Maryland.