College Basketball: Penn State Holds Off Chattanooga’s Second-Half Rally to Improve to 2-0

 

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Written by Braydin Adams

 

Penn State Holds Off Chattanooga’s Second-Half Rally to Improve to 2-0

On Thursday, November 5th, the Penn State Nittany Lions basketball team hosted Chattanooga in their second game of the season after opening with a win over Canisius. The Nittany Lions were not going to take the Mocs lightly, though, as Chattanooga has made 11 appearances in the NCAA Tournament, with its most recent coming in 2022, and has a strong basketball program overall.

The game started with Thomas Allard draining two three-pointers, leading the way and setting the tone early.

The Mocs would not let the Nittany Lions build a big lead early, as Kobe McDowell-White knocked down three early three-pointers to tie the game at 11-11.

Penn State would not fold, though, as Francois Wibaut and Ivan Juric both contributed to build a 38-22 lead with under seven minutes remaining in the first half.

The Nittany Lions proved to be too much for Chattanooga in the opening half, building a 54-31 halftime lead largely thanks to Josh Reed, who began to get going for the Lions. On the bright side for the Mocs, Kobe McDowell-Whitelooked very sharp with 13 points heading into the locker room.

The Mocs showed they would not go away quietly, going on a run to cut the deficit down to 12, making the score 63-51 with fourteen minutes to play.

Offensively, Penn State began to go ice cold and found itself up just 66-54 with twelve minutes remaining. Through the first eight minutes of the second half, the Lions scored just twelve points while Chattanooga scored twenty-three.

Things just kept getting uglier for the Nittany Lions. Back-to-back goaltending calls cut the deficit into single digits, and the Lions led 73-64 with 8:19 to play in the game.

After Penn State built its lead back to 11 points, a corner three-pointer cut the deficit to eight, making the score 85-77 with just 3:30 remaining. This three made it 46 second-half points for the Mocs compared to the Nittany Lions’ 31. Another bucket followed, extending Chattanooga’s run to 7-0.

The second half was far from pretty for the Lions, but they were able to secure the win by a final score of 97-93. Josh Reed led the way with 25 points for Penn State.

 

Leading Scorers

Penn State: Josh Reed (25), Ivan Juric (15), Francois Wibaut (14), Roko Prkacin (13), Bowen (13)

Chattanooga: Kobe McDowell-White (28), Hampton (25), Anigbata (19), Bleshoy (9), Levy (4), Matos (4)

Looking Ahead

Penn State improves to 2-0 on the season and will return to action on Sunday at 8:00 p.m. EST against Pittsburgh at the Palestra. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.

Chattanooga falls to 0-2 on the season and will return to action Monday night at 7:00 p.m. EST, when the Mocs will host Covenant and look to get their first win of the 2026 season.