Penn State men’s basketball rolls past Fairleigh Dickinson

Tony Carr paced Penn State with 20 points Sunday as five Nittany Lions reached double digits in the 81-57 victory over Fairleigh Dickinson.

Carr was a perfect 9 of 9 from the free-throw line, and the Nittany Lions shot 44.8 percent from the field at the Bryce Jordan Center.

With the win, PSU is 2-0 to start the season. Fairleigh Dickinson is 0-2.

MVP of the game

Josh Reaves: No, he didn’t score the most points. But he was just one rebound shy of a double-double, as he finished with 17 points and nine boards on 7-of-10 shooting. He also led the team with four steals and even added four assists and a block. On top of all that, he even started the turning point, which leads us to ...

Turning point

Midway through first half: Penn State trailed 23-22, but that’s when Reaves turned it on. In a span of two minutes, the guard grabbed three rebounds, a steal and four second-chance points. That sparked an 8-0 run that put Penn State up 30-23. The Nittany Lions ended the first half on a 23-6 run — and there was no coming back from that for Fairleigh Dickinson.

Ice cold

No field goals: While PSU shot well as a team, there were three noteworthy exceptions. Starter Shep Garner finished 0 for 7 — he was 0 for 6 on 3s — and didn’t score a single point in 25 minutes of playing time. Subs Jamari Wheeler and Satchel Pierce also finished 0 for 5 and 0 for 4, respectively. Without those three figuring into the stats, PSU would’ve shot 59 percent from the field.

Next game

Penn State will next play Montana at 7 p.m. Wednesday inside the BJC.

This story was originally published November 13, 2017 at 12:01 AM with the headline "Penn State men’s basketball rolls past Fairleigh Dickinson."