Barefield Scores 22 Points, but Utes Fall to Nittany Lions in NIT Final

Thursday, March 29

New York, N.Y.

5:00 PM

University of Utah

Penn State

Utah

Barefield Scores 22 Points, but Utes Fall to Nittany Lions in NIT Final

3/29/2018 8:35 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Utah-Penn State | Box Score (PDF)

NEW YORK – The Utah Runnin' Utes' 2017-18 campaign came to an end Thursday night, falling 82-66 to the Penn State Nittany Lions in the NIT Championship game at Madison Square Garden.

The Utes round-out the season with a combined 23-12 overall record, while Penn State moved to 26-13.

Utah, who fell to 15-13 all-time in NIT games, led by as many as six points early in the first quarter, but a slow-shooting second quarter pushed PSU's lead up to 10 with less than 2:50 to play in the first half. Utah closed out the quarter with a 7-2 run to pull within five points, down 39-34 at the half, but the Nittany Lions out-scored the Utes 24-14 in the third quarter and any kind of Utah comeback was cut short.

PSU shot .552 from the field, which included a .409 effort from three-point range. The Utes shot .417 from the arc and even made one more three-pointer than the Nittany Lions (10-9), but finished shooting slightly lower overall at .431 for the game.

Sedrick Barefield led Utah with 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting overall and a 6-of-8 effort from the arc. He tied a career-high with six three's in the game and notched his first 20-point scoring effort since Jan. 27 (26 vs. Arizona). Justin Bibbins tallied 15 points and Tyler Rawon chipped in with 11 points on the evening.

This marked just the second meeting between the Utes and Nittany Lions and first since 1971. PSU now leads the all-time series 2-0, with both wins against the Utes coming at Madison Square Garden.

Utah scored a total of 2,571 points on the season, which now ranks sixth-most in single-season school history. The Utes tallied an all-time school record 322 three-pointers made in a season and registered the program's fifth-highest free throw percentage at .759 on the year.

Bibbins tallied 93 three-pointers on the year, which ranks second-most in single-season school history. Meanwhile, David Collette tallied a .631 field goal shooting percentage which ranks fifth-best in a season.

Utah recorded at least 20 wins in a season for the fifth straight year, which included at least 23 wins in three of the past four seasons.