Clary scores 20 as Penn States rebounds to beat Le Moyne

Dec 22, 2023, 02:35 am

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- — Kanye Clary scored 20 points as Penn State bounced back its one-point loss to Georgia Tech in overtime by cruising to a 72-55 win over Le Moyne, a first-year Division I member of the Northeast Conference on Thursday night.

The Nittany Lions needed to stage big second-half comebacks in its previous two games, coming from 18 points down to beat Ohio State 83-80 and then from 10 down to force overtime with Georgia Tech at Madison Square Garden only to fall 82-81.

Le Moyne came into the contest with five wins in its first dozen games, two of them against Division I programs Cal State Northridge and Dartmouth. The Dolphins were competitive in their first game against a Power Five representative, trailing by just nine with 6:09 left on Kaiyem Cleary's layup to make it 60-51 and Mike DePersia's layup with 2:41 to play to make it 66-55.

Nick Kern Jr. and Ace Baldwin Jr. each hit a pair free throws and Qudus Wahab hit a jumper to finish the scoring.

Clary hit 4 of 8 from behind the 3-point line and added six assists for the Nittany Lions (6-6), who won their sixth home game in seven starts. Wahab finished with 11 points and grabbed eight rebounds and D'Marco Dunn had 10 points. Baldwin entered the game just 13 points shy of 1,000 career points and finished with nine points and six assists.

Cleary scored 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead Le Moyne, with Ocypher Owens had 13 points, six rebounds and three assists and Nathan McClure added 12 points.

Penn State will host Ryder Dec. 29. Le Moyne plays at Fairfield Dec. 30.

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