College basketball roundup: Stevens leads Penn State to win in opener; W&J, Cal men lose
Lamar Stevens scored 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead Penn State to a season-opening 87-72 win over North Florida on Friday night.
Josh Reaves added 19 points, Myles Dread chipped in 17 and Rasir Bolton notched 13 for the Nittany Lions (1-0), who unveiled their NIT championship banner before the game.
Stevens didn’t wait to pick up where he finished last season.
The forward, who averaged 19.2 points per game over the final five postseason games in the spring, scored 18 in the first half with eight over the final 9:14 to give Penn State a 40-28 halftime lead.
Garrett Sams led the Ospreys (0-2) with 16 points, while Noah Horchler and Ezekiel Balogun scored 10 apiece for North Florida, which cut Penn State’s lead to eight early in the second half but trailed by 18 with 5:45 left.
Fairmont State 86, California 70: Cole VonHandorf scored 18 points and led four Fairmont State in double figures as the Falcons defeated visiting California 86-70 in the opening round of the season-opening Joe Retton Classic.
Fairmont State led 41-32 at halftime, and after Cal mad a charge early in the second half the hot-shooting Falcons pulled away over the final 10 minutes. Fairmont State shot 60 percent from the field and made 15 three-pointers.
Cal was led in scoring by freshman Jermaine Hall, who had 20 points, and freshman Zyan Collins with 18. Brent Pegram also scored in double figures with 15.
Franciscan 81, Wash & Jeff 68: Matt Trent and Sean Hickey combined for 44 points as Franciscan defeated Washington & Jefferson 81-68 in a nonconference season-opener at Henry Memorial Center.
Franciscan forged a 10-point lead at halftime and shot 53 percent for the game. Trent scored a game-high 23 points and Hickey followed with 21.
Franciscan had a 37-28 rebounding edge.
Cameron Seeman led W&J with 14 points. Sean Stinelli followed with 11 and Nicholas Campalong had 10. The Presidents shot 39 percent.
Women’s result
Carnegie Mellon 67, Waynesburg 54, OT: Carnegie Mellon outscored Waynesburg 13-0 in overtime to cap a comeback and defeat the host Yellow Jackets 67-54 in a nonconference season opener.
Waynesburg led 23-11 after one quarter but CMU chipped away at deficit and pulled to within 35-27 at halftime and 46-42 after three quarters.
Elena McDermott made a free throw that gave Waynesburg a 54-52 lead with 2:38 left in the fourth quarter but the Yellow Jackets would not score again. Waynesburg went the final 8:33 without a field goal.
CMU tied the score at 54-54 on a basket by Emily Archer with 44 seconds left in regulation.
Andrea Orlosky led Waynesburg with 18 points. Haley Porter followed with 15 and Erin Joyce had 10. The Yellow Jackets made nine three-pointers but only three of 12 free throws.
“I thought our effort was really good,” Waynesburg coach Sam Jones said. “We need to fix a few details, but we competed hard all night against a good team.”
CMU’s Makayla Filiere matched Orlosky for game-scoring honors with 18 points. The Tartans made only one of 10 three-pointers but converted 14 of 16 free throws.