Reaves’ late basket leads Penn State over Ohio State

NEW YORK » With Penn State trailing by a point and the clock ticking off the final 10 seconds, almost everyone in Madison Square Garden was waiting for Big Ten Conference leading scorer Tony Carr to launch a gamewinning shot attempt against second-seeded Ohio State. It was a no-brainer, until Carr decided otherwise.

Carr found Josh Reaves for a game-winning dunk with 3.1 seconds to play and Penn State may have punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament with a 69-68 victory over Ohio State (24-8) in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament on Friday night.

“It was ‘Fist Two’, basically try to get the mismatch and I was just trying to make a play,” Carr said. “And Josh basically made the play. He made a great cut. I was just out there dribbling around. Josh made a great play. And I thank God I found him.”

It was a great ending in more ways than one. The Nittany Lions (22-12) scored the final five points in beating the 13th-ranked Buckeyes for the third time this season and advancing to Saturday’s semifinal against the winner of the quarterfinal between third-seeded and No. 8 Purdue and 14th-seeded Rutgers.

The game-winning play was set up when Shep Garner made a crucial steal from conference player of the year Keita Bates-Diop with 21 seconds to play.

Penn State elected not to call a timeout and coach Patrick Chambers called out a play. “I just noticed my man wasn’t looking at me so I took advantage of that,” Reaves said. “And Tony just shows how much of a great player he is to find an open man in a time like that. I was just fortunate enough to make the dunk.” MICHIGAN 77, NEBRASKA 58» Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman scored 21 points and Moe Wagner had 20 as No. 15 Michigan (26-7) dealt a significant blow to Nebraska’s NCAA hopes, beating the Cornhuskers (22-10) in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament. MICHIGAN STATE 63, WISCONSIN 60 » Cassius Winston hit a go-ahead jumper with 7:17 to play and No. 2 Michigan State (29-3) won its 13th straight game, beating Wisconsin (1518) in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament.

Miles Bridges led the Spartans with 20 points and Winston finished with 17.