National Basketball Association
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Penn St. 72, Cornell 71
When: 9:00 PM ET, Friday, November 21, 2014
Where: TD Arena, Charleston, South Carolina
Officials: # Anthony Greene, # John Hampton, # Kelly Self
Attendance: 1910

Penn State 72, Cornell 71: D.J. Newbill scored 26 points and hit the go-ahead layup as time expired as the Nittany Lions escaped with a wild win over the Big Red in a consolation game of the Charleston Classic.

Penn State trailed 71-67 with 14 seconds left after Galal Cancer drained a pair of free throws, but John Johnson knocked down a 3-pointer with 4.5 seconds remaining to force a Cornell timeout. Shonn Miller had trouble inbounding the ball on the Big Red’s side of the court on the subsequent inbounds play and threw the ball into the backcourt, where it was intercepted by Shep Garner, who found Newbill on the left wing before he drove by a defender with the game-winner.

Johnson chipped in 17 points and Garner finished with 10 for Penn State (3-1), which will meet USC in the fifth-place game on Sunday. Robert Hatter and Cancer tallied 17 points, Miller had 15 and Devin Cherry added 11 points, seven rebounds and six assists for Cornell (2-3), which faces Drexel in Sunday’s seventh-place game.

Newbill scored seven straight points to rally Penn State within 17-16 midway through the first half before Hatter drilled two 3-pointers during a 14-2 spurt to leave Cornell with a 13-point edge with just over five minutes to go in the first half. Penn State came out of the break strong, turning its nine-point halftime deficit to one before the first media timeout in the second half behind two triples from Garner.

The Big Red responded with three consecutive 3-pointers to quickly increase their lead to 53-42 before missing their next eight shots, opening the door for the Nittany Lions to tie it four times down the stretch. Cherry knocked down a jumper with 44 seconds remaining while Hatter and Cancer converted two free throws apiece over the final half-minute, setting the stage for the wild sequence of events.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Newbill, who scored a career-high 35 points in Thursday’s opening-round, double-overtime loss to Charlotte, has scored 61 points through two games at this event. …Cornell fell to 13-36 all-time against the Big Ten. … The Big Red finished 21-of-22 from the foul line.
Top Game Performances
 
Penn St.   Cornell
D.J. Newbill 26 Scoring Galal Cancer 17
D.J. Newbill 2 Assists Devin Cherry 6
Ross Travis 9 Rebounds Devin Cherry 7
John Johnson 4 Free Throws Made Galal Cancer 12
D.J. Newbill 4 Steals Galal Cancer 2
Brandon Taylor 2 Blocks Shonn Miller 3
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Points FG% 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Assists Rebounds Blocks Steals Turnovers
Penn St. 72 45.6 7-21 13-17 7 32 4 9 10
Cornell 71 40.4 8-21 21-22 10 26 5 4 12