Halftime was 54-31. Final was 97-93. Penn State set a program free-throw record at 43 of 49 and still watched Anigbata's three cut it to one possession with under a second left. Credit the free throws. Do not hide the second half. Pitt is next.
Penn State did not sneak out of this one. The Nittany Lions led 54-31 at the half at the Bryce Jordan Center, made a program-record 43 free throws on 49 attempts (88 percent), and still needed the last free throw of the night to beat Chattanooga 97-93, per the AP recap on ESPN and the ESPN box.
That is a win. It is also a receipt.
Josh Reed scored 25. Fifteen of those points came from the line: 15 of 16 free throws, five steals, five rebounds in 33 minutes. Ivan Juric went for 15 and 10 with 10 of 14 from the stripe. Reserve Roko Prkacin finished with 13 and hit the final free throw that locked the school record, after Lenny Anigbata's three with less than a second left finally got the Mocs to one possession.
Francois Wibaut had 14. Dasonte Bowen had 13. Thomas Allard had 11. Penn State is 2-0 at home. Attendance: 4,935. None of that is fake good news.
The foul-line night was the whole night. Penn State attempted 49 free throws and made 43. Chattanooga attempted 23 and made 14. Four Mocs fouled out. When a mid-major visits and leaves with 33 team fouls, the home team is supposed to cash that. Penn State did.
Halftime lead: 23. ESPN's box lists the largest lead at 23. That matches the half. Then Chattanooga scored the first eight points after the break and kept coming.
Second-half score: Chattanooga 62, Penn State 43. The Mocs shot 61 percent from the field after halftime (22 of 36) and made 6 of 12 threes in that half, per AP. Kobe McDowell-White finished with 28 on 10-of-11 shooting, including 7 of 8 from three, plus eight assists. Matthew Hampton had 25. Anigbata had 19. McDowell-White's layup made it 71-62 just past the midpoint of the second half. The Mocs never got it to one possession until that late Anigbata three.
So the free-throw record did not create a cruise. It covered a 19-point swing in half scoring. Penn State won the glass 40-30 and still watched an 0-2 visitor put up 93. Ninety-three allowed in November against Chattanooga is not a finished defensive identity. It is also not proof the defense is broken. Two games. One night. Say both.
Penn State went 6 of 23 from three. Brant Byers, in 29 minutes, went 1 of 10 from the field and 0 of 7 from deep. That is not the story by itself. It is the part of the box that refuses to let the free-throw headline stand alone. When you need 43 makes at the line to hold serve after a 54-31 half, the three-point drought is part of why the second half got loud.
From the field overall, Penn State was 24 of 53 (45 percent). Chattanooga was 34 of 66 (52 percent). The Nittany Lions won because the whistle kept putting them on the line, and because Reed and Juric mostly made those free throws. That is a real skill. It is not the same thing as locking a team down.
AP notes the first-half breakaway: a 13-2 run past the midpoint stretched the lead from five to 38-22, and Penn State shot 50 percent from the field with 21 of 22 free throws in the half. That is how you build a 54-31 scoreboard. The question is what happened after the locker room.
Next is Pitt at home on Sunday. That is the next read, not a season verdict.
If Penn State beats Pitt while holding Pitt under 45 percent from the field and scoring without another 40-plus free-throw night, Thursday's second half looks like early noise. If another visitor shoots it clean after the break and the Nittany Lions need the foul line to survive again, the free-throw record stops reading like a feel-good quirk and starts reading like a cover story.
No coach quotes in the packet. None invented. Nobody needs a "we have to execute better" clip to see the shape of this game. The halves are the quote.
Same building, same week, different roster: Ava Black's career night for the Lady Lions was a star line inside a one-point home loss. Different sport. Same Bryce Jordan habit of forcing you to hold two truths at once.
Credit the record. Credit Reed's 15 of 16. Then ask the only question a Philly fan asks after a 23-point half becomes a four-point finish: how much of that win was the free throws, and how much was a defense that let Chattanooga go for 62 after the break?
Richmond 79, Temple 53. The Spiders scored the first 14 points in a building Temple hadn't played in for four years, on the night it turned 100. One week after a 17-0 start, the Owls had as many turnovers as made field goals.
Burton was the purchase: 42.5 percent on 76 threes at Stephen F. Austin. He led La Salle with 15 points and four threes in the Houston opener. Volume is not a clinic. Homecoming against LIU is where the bet has to look real at home.
Last year Temple beat George Mason in overtime. This year Turner goes for 21 with five threes on the road and the Owls lose by 20. Credit her night. Do not hide the boards or the score. Navy at home is the next read.
Seventeen points, 10 rebounds, five assists, all career bests, in 39 minutes. The Lady Lions still dropped the home opener by one. Both things count.
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