Temple Owls vs Penn St. Nittany Lions Match Player Stats On Mar 14, 2018

Josh Reaves led all scorers with 18 and also grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds for the fourth-seeded Nittany Lions, who advance to a second-round game at top-seeded Notre Dame on Saturday.

Nazeer Bostick scored 12 points, while Lamar Stevens and Julian Moore each added 10 for Penn State (22-13).

Shizz Alston led the fifth-seeded Owls (17-16) with 15 points, while Josh Brown added 14 and Quinton Rose chipped in 11 points.

Trailing 54-48 with 3:56 left after Alston converted a layup, Penn State tied it on consecutive possessions when Reaves and Shep Garner canned 3-pointers. John Harrar gave the Nittany Lions the lead for good with 1:52 left on a layup, and Garner swished a dagger 3-pointer with 1:06 remaining to make it 59-54.

Temple missed eight consecutive field-goal attempts and two free throws during the game-changing spurt, losing a lead it held for just over 35 minutes with solid execution and good defense. The Owls made just 4 of 15 shots in the fourth quarter.

Temple controlled most of the game, using key runs to keep Penn State at bay. The Owls rattled off 10 straight first-quarter points to establish a 13-4 lead at the 3:16 mark on a 3-pointer by Brown, and they took a 16-12 advantage to the second quarter.

After the Nittany Lions pulled within 21-19 on a 3-pointer from Reaves with 4:37 left in the half, Temple ripped off eight in a row and established its first 10-point lead when Brown converted a layup with 1:40 remaining. Penn State closed within 29-24 at the half when Bostick made a 3-pointer 27 seconds before the break.

The Owls regained a 10-point advantage early in the third quarter, but the Nittany Lions got back into contention by canning 14 of 17 free throws in the period. The last two from Moore pulled them within 48-44 going into the fourth quarter.

--Field Level Media