Brandon Taylor’s hot shooting leads PSU to 68-62 victory over DePaul

As Brandon Taylor prepared to let a 3-point attempt fly from the left corner on the first possession of the second half, five teammates on the Penn State bench leapt to their feet in anticipation.

Swish.

Three possessions later, Taylor fired from the top of the key.

After it dropped, with Penn State’s lead pushed to 10, his teammates on the bench were on their feet to celebrate again. Taylor stayed hot, scoring 19 of his 22 points in the second half to lead the Nittany Lions to a 68-62 win over DePaul at the Bryce Jordan Center on Tuesday night.

His big second half came after he took just one shot in nine minutes in the first half. He knocked down a 3-pointer on his lone attempt of the first half to give the Nittany Lions a six-point lead.

“I just tried to keep focus throughout the whole time I was sitting through foul trouble,” said Taylor, who picked up two fouls in the first half. “So I don’t think I changed anything. It was just me staying in the game. There’s been times before when I get in foul trouble and I don’t play long stretches where I tend to just wander off.”

Taylor finished 7 for 10 from the field and made 4 of his 7 attempts from deep to pace Penn State offensively. Shep Garner finished with 16 points, and Payton Banks and Josh Reaves each added 10 points for Penn State, which finished 10 for 21 from beyond the arc.

The Nittany Lions (2-0) never trailed in the win and held off DePaul in a tight second half. The Blue Demons (1-1) pulled within three points seven times in the final 16 minutes, but never got any closer.

“In the past end of the games wasn’t really our thing,” Taylor said. “I think a game like this showed that we can finish those games out.”

Taylor made crucial plays to help seal the victory.

After DePaul closed the gap to three points for the final time, Taylor found Garner with a cross-court pass for a 3-pointer that pushed the Nittany Lions’ lead to 60-54 with 1:29 left.

It was the first play Penn State coach Patrick Chambers mentioned after the game.

And on the next possession, Taylor drilled a 3-pointer over DePaul’s 6-foot-11 center Tommy Hamilton to extend the lead to seven points with 44 seconds to go.

The 6-foot-6 forward had success throughout the half against a variety of defenders. With 6-foot-10 forward Peter Ryckbosch guarding him beyond the arc, Taylor drove baseline for an easy finish. Later, with DePaul down by three points, Taylor backed down 6-foot-6 forward Myke Henry.

DePaul guard Aaron Simpson provided help and fouled Taylor, sending him to the line, where he hit 1 of 2 shots.

“He’s the proverbial mismatch,” DePaul coach Dave Leitao said. “Put a bigger guy on him, he can go by him. Put somebody smaller whose quicker and can guard him out there, and they post him up.”

When Taylor wasn’t a factor offensively in the first half, Penn State maintained control.

The Nittany Lions capitalized in transition to take the early lead.

Reaves came away with a steal and raced downcourt for a breakaway two-handed dunk for the game’s first points. Garner tipped a pass for a steal on the next possession and coasted in for an easy layup.

Later, Jordan Dickerson blocked a shot to spark another fast-break opportunity. Taylor grabbed the loose ball off the block, turned and saw Reaves streaking toward the rim all alone.

Reaves caught Taylor’s outlet pass and finished another two-handed dunk to push the Nittany Lions ahead 8-2 with 15:39 left in the first half.

“A lot of those easy baskets really help us get our momentum going,” Reaves said.

Taylor gave Penn State momentum going into the half when he drilled a 3 from the top of the key in the final seconds off a pass from Banks.

He picked up where he left off in the second half.

And he and the Nittany Lions made the plays to close out the Blue Demons down the stretch.

“I felt like we took some punches,” Chambers said. “We might have got stung a little bit and wobbly. But we came right back and made a play and had a big basket or moved the floor, got the ball side to side, got ourselves to the free-throw line. I didn’t really see panic.”

Notes: Penn State returns to action at Duquesne at 7 p.m. Friday. … The victory marked Chambers’ 100th as a head coach. … Penn State’s Julian Moore grabbed a team-high eight rebounds in 19 minutes. … Garner finished with a team-high five assists and one turnover. Penn State had 12 assists and 10 turnovers as a team.

This story was originally published November 18, 2015 at 12:14 PM with the headline "Brandon Taylor’s hot shooting leads PSU to 68-62 victory over DePaul."