Kent State Golden Flashes vs. Penn State Nittany Lions men's basketball final: Flashes fall 75-69 in Vegas

Kent State struggled to stop one man in its 75-69 loss to the Penn State Nittany Lions on Wednesday night, and his name is Brandon Taylor. His 29 points led the way in giving the Golden Flashes their fourth loss of the year.

Jimmy Hall started the game on a nice note, scoring the night's first 7 points. He even hit his first 3-pointer of the season to start the scoring. The Nittany Lions used some zone and other defensive looks to mitigate Hall's effect for much of the rest of the night. Hall became effective again about midway through the second half, bu picked up his fourth foul of the night with 5:19 to go in the game with Kent State up 59-57. From that moment, Penn State put together a run of baskets on four consecutive possessions, which included two jump shots from Taylor, putting the Nittany Lions up 65-59. About six and a half minutes before the Flashes had led by six. It would be enough to put away Coach Rob Senderoff's crew.

The Flashes and Nittany Lions battled for much of the evening. KSU led by as much as 10, and exchanged ties and leads through the entirety of the game. Kent actually pulled within three with 1:03 to go after a bucket through contact (plus the free throw) from Kellon Thomas, but Penn State put it away.

KSU struggled a bit on the board due to Penn State's length, and ended the night -12 in rebounding (44-32). Giving up 20 offensive boards also didn't work too great in the Golden Flashes favor.

Hall, Thomas (12), Xavier Pollard (12), and Chris Ortiz (11) were the four double-digit scorers.

Penn State scored 75 points despite assisting on just 4 of its 29 baskets. Go figure.

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