College basketball roundup: Tillman leads Michigan State comeback over Penn State
STATE COLLEGE – Xavier Tillman Sr. scored 23 points and had 15 rebounds to lead No. 16 Michigan State over No. 20 Penn State 79-71 on Tuesday night.
Rocket Watts added 18 points, Cassius Winston had 14 and Aaron Henry scored 12 for the Spartans who erased a 46-31 halftime deficit to win their fourth straight.
Myreon Jones led Penn State with 16 points while Lamar Stevens had 15 and Mike Watkins had 12.
The Spartans (13-6 Big Ten, 21-9) trailed by as many as 19 with 4:15 left in the first half, but scored the first nine points to start the second.
It sparked a dominant stretch of play in the paint for the Spartans who took their first lead of the game with 14:29 to play when Tillman dunked to make it 51-49.
Meanwhile, the Nittany Lions, who made 10 of 17 3-pointers in the first half, went 0-for-10 from long distance to start the second.
The Spartans continued to keep Penn State (11-8, 21-9) at bay from there and used a 14-6 run to take their biggest lead of the night, 65-55 with 9:41 left. John Harrar made back-to-back layups to pull Penn State within two with 4:56 to play, but the Nittany Lions wouldn’t get any closer.
The Nittany Lions used a pair of first-half runs to take control early.
They opened with a 10-2 advantage that featured two high-amplitude, alley-oop dunks from Watkins and a pair of 3s from Jamari Wheeler and Seth Lundy.
Michigan State cut it to 12-11, but Penn State made seven 3-pointers over the next 7:47 as part of 29-11 run that made it 41-22 with 4:15 left.
The Spartans scored the next eight points before Jones added his fourth 3-pointer of the half and Watkins jammed in his third alley-oop dunk of the half to make it 46-31 at halftime.