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Penn State pulls off rare sweep of Ohio State

Feb 28, 2014 - 8:12 AM University Park, PA (SportsNetwork.com) - D.J. Newbill scored 23 points and Penn State proved to be Ohio State's nemesis once again, coming through with a 65-63 victory over the 22nd-ranked Buckeyes at Bryce Jordan Center.

The hero of last month's shocking 71-70 overtime decision over the Buckeyes in Columbus, Newbill netted 17 of his points in the second half to help Penn State (14-14, 5-10 Big Ten) pull off its first season sweep of Ohio State since 1997-98.

Tim Frazier contributed 16 points to the upset win, which the Lions cemented with a 22-of-28 performance from the foul line. Newbill made good on 11-of-12 free throws, while Frazier finished 7-of-8 from the stripe.

"Ohio State is a great team with a great coach and this is a big win for us, but being able to do this at home on senior night with my family, my brother D.J. [Newbill] and my teammates makes this very special," Frazier said.

Ohio State (22-7, 9-7) bounced back to win six of seven since their Jan. 29 defeat to the Nittany Lions, but went just 18-of-27 from the stripe and were outrebounded by a 34-25 margin in the rematch.

LaQuinton Ross paced the Buckeyes with 19 points, with Aaron Craft recording 10 in the loss.

Penn State trailed 33-26 early in the second half before ripping off a 12-2 run to put the Buckeyes on their heels. A Brandon Taylor 3-pointer put the Lions ahead, and Jordan Dickerson followed with a flying putback dunk for a 38-35 edge with 13:53 to play.

Ohio State later drew back even at 49-49 with 6:50 left, but Penn State responded with a 6-2 spurt that Newbill capped with a triple for a 55-51 lead with just under four minutes remaining.

The Lions were up by five with 39 seconds left, but nearly coughed up the advantage down the stretch. Two Ross free throws and Shannon Scott's steal of a ill-advised Frazier pass, which led to a Trey McDonald layup, quickly pulled the Buckeyes within one, and it remained that way after PSU's Ross Travis bricked two foul shots with 20.7 seconds showing.

Ohio State's Lenzelle Smith missed an open look from beyond the arc, however, and Frazier was fouled with 6.8 seconds on the clock after the shot went out of bounds. He made the second try to make it a 65-63 game, which held up when Smith's 3-point attempt right before the buzzer hit the front of the rim.

Though struggling offensively for much of the night, the Buckeyes started off strong, hitting their first four shots during a game-opening 10-2 run and stretching the lead to 15-6 shortly afterward following a Sam Thompson three around 6 1/2 minutes in.

A 7-0 sequence later on put Ohio State up 22-11 with under nine minutes left in the half, but the Nittany Lions closed out the period on a 15-6 surge to pull within two at the break.

Frazier was the catalyst for Penn State's rally, netting the first four points of the burst and capping it with a triple that cut the margin to 28-26 with 2:19 left. The Lions also held the Buckeyes without a field goal over the final five-plus minutes of the frame.

"We had chances in the first half to open it up and we missed some free throws, we missed some point-blank shots at the basket and had a chance to have a double-digit lead there," OSU head coach Thad Matta said. "To Penn State's credit, they kept fighting, they kept clawing."

Ohio State then scored the initial five points of the second half before Penn State began to make its charge.

Game Notes

Newbill had 25 points and hit the game-winning basket with 1.9 seconds left in overtime in the teams' matchup in Columbus ... The Nittany Lions had dropped 18 straight to Ohio State prior to last month's result ... Ohio State, which shot 42.6 percent to the Lions' 44.2 percent, fell to 4-6 this season when recording a lower field percentage than the opposition ... Frazier was honored prior to the game as part of Senior Night festivities.