Henry Coleman III scored a season-best 24 points and Wade Taylor IV tallied a season-high 23 as No. 12 Texas A&M notched an 89-77 victory over Penn State on Thursday in the opening round of the ESPN Events Invitational at Kissimmee, Fla.
Tyrece Radford had 14 points for the Aggies (5-0), who had a commanding 33-20 rebounding advantage.
Kanye Clary scored 19 points on 8-of-14 shooting and Puff Johnson added 15 points for Penn State (4-1). Ace Baldwin Jr. tallied 12 points for the Nittany Lions.
The Aggies will face either Butler or No. 19 Florida Atlantic in Friday’s semifinals. Penn State will face the loser of that game.
Texas A&M shot a solid 59.6 percent from the field, including 5 of 14 from 3-point range. Coleman was 8-of-11 shooting and Taylor made 8 of 13 shots.
The Nittany Lions sank 52.8 percent of their shots and were 6 of 19 from behind the arc.
Penn State trailed 55-52 after Johnson’s jumper with 10:43 remaining. But Radford made a layup and Coleman converted a three-point play as the Aggies held a 60-52 advantage with 9:49 remaining.
Ninety seconds later, Taylor converted a three-point play to give Texas A&M a 63-54 lead with 8:19 left.
Penn State scored the next six points to pull within three. But Coleman converted two three-point plays in a span of 35 seconds as the Aggies moved ahead 69-63 with 6:11 left.
Clary’s jumper pulled the Nittany Lions within 75-70 with 4:19 remaining. But Taylor answered with a trey and Coleman followed with a layup to push the Texas A&M lead to 10 with 3:27 left and the Aggies closed it out.
Radford scored 10 first-half points as Texas A&M led 39-32 at the break. Johnson had 12 in the half for Penn State.
Johnson’s 3-pointer gave the Nittany Lions a 24-22 lead with 6:09 remaining before the Aggies ran off 10 straight points. Two free throws by Taylor capped the spurt and gave Texas A&M a 32-24 lead with 3:44 left.
Radford later made a layup to make it 39-29 before the Aggies settled for the seven-point lead.
–Field Level Media