Penn State basketball tipped off their 2023 ESPN Events Invitational tournament against No. 13 Texas A&M in a rematch of the first round of the NCAA Tournament from last year.
The game started off as a snoozer on Thanksgiving Day with not much action taking place on the floor. Things started to pick up late in the first half which carried over to the second half where the teams combined for 95 points.
After giving the Aggies everything they could, Penn State ultimately lost 89-77 in their first big test of the season.
The new look Nittany Lions looked the part against a veteran Texas A&M team who has legitimate size and will compete for the SEC regular season title this year.
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[autotag]Kanye Clary[/autotag] was expected to have a much bigger role as returning player for the Nittany Lions and he stepped up in a major way on Thursday. He finished with a team-high 19 points on 8-14 from the field.
Penn State is still waiting for [autotag]Ace Baldwin[/autotag] to hit his stride. He scored 12 points and hit three three-pointers, but shot 40% from the field and only netted two assists.
The good news is that Puff Johnson had his best game with the Nittany Lions, scoring 15 points in 29 minutes off the bench. It’s likely that he will move into the starting lineup at some point during the season.
As far as a game breakdown goes, Penn State really only felt “in it” during the middle part of the first half. They held the lead for the majority between from 16:06 to 6:09 when Johnson hit a three that put the Nittany Lions up 24-22.
After that, Texas A&M outscored them 17-8 and took a seven point lead into halftime.
This run was the difference in the game. Penn State cut the lead to three on four separate occasions in the second half, but never got it closer than that margin.
Overall, it was a good showing for the Nittany Lions. Their defense is something that needs to be worked on as they allowed the Aggies to shoot 59.6% from the field and 35.7% from three. Despite the newfound size, Penn State gave up 12 offensive rebounds and lost the rebounding margin by 13.
They will face the loser of Florida Atlantic and Butler in the first consolation game taking place on Friday at 1:30 pm ET.
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