Bradley holds off cold-shooting Penn St. 59-56

Nov 22, 2018, 04:17 am

CANCUN, Mexico -- Elijah Childs scored 18 points and Bradley held on to beat cold-shooting Penn State 59-56 in the championship game of the Cancun Challenge on Wednesday night.

Down by four with 20.8 seconds remaining, Penn State (3-2) had possession but missed three shots before Lamar Stevens was fouled with 1.5 seconds left. Stevens made the first free throw and intentionally missed the second. Penn State grabbed the rebound and pushed the ball out to Myles Dread at the top of the arc, but his shot hit the front of the rim at the buzzer.

Bradley (5-1) won its first regular-season tournament title since winning the River City Shootout in 1983.

Stevens scored 27 points on 7-of-20 shooting from the field and made 12 free throws, and finished with a tournament-record 99 points. The rest of the Nittany Lions shot a combined 10 of 39 (26 percent) against the Braves.

Childs was 8 of 13 from the field. Darrell Brown, Bradley's leading scorer the past two seasons, made three 3-pointers and finished with 16 points.

Childs scored seven straight points early in the second half and the Braves had a 39-35 advantage and led the rest of the way.