Penn State guard Kanye Clary hit the deck after sinking a difficult lay-in attempt, keeping things close before No. 12 Texas A&M answered back and ran away with a 89-77 victory over the Nittany Lions in the first round of the ESPN Events Invitational on Thursday.
Clary scored a team-high 19 points in coach Mike Rhoades’ first test against a ranked opponent in 2023. The game also served as a rematch of Penn State’s NCAA Tournament win over the Aggies last March — the program’s tournament victory since 2021.
Penn State forward Puff Johnson, who missed the first two games of the year and played sparingly since, scored a season-high 15 points.