Men: NC Central at PSU

Tipoff: 1 p.m., Jordan Center, University Park

Records: North Carolina Central (4-10), Penn State (8-4)

TV: Big Ten Network

Radio: ESPN 1370 State College

Satellite: SiriusXM Ch. 372

Notable: Kids 12-and-under can get in free today with the purchase of an adult ticket to the game. … Penn State is coming off a blowout loss in Hershey against Pitt. The Eagles are coming off a 74-72 loss to Longwood. … NC Central has wins against Bluefield State, Toccoa Falls, CarolinaU and Mid-Atlantic Christian. … After 12 games, the Nittany Lions are getting offense from Freddie Dilione V (14.9), Kayden Mingo (14.5) and Melih Tunca (11.1). … The Eagles are a Division I program, competing in the MEAC. They became a Division I program at the outset of the 2011-12 season. NC Central used to be known as North Carolina College. … This is the Nittany Lions last non-conference game. They will play Illinois in Philadelphia this Saturday at The Palestra at 7 p.m.

Mirror prediction: Penn State 90, NC Central 60

Mirror prediction record: 11-1

— Scott Franco

Lady Lions roughed up by No. 14

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Ava Heiden scored a career-high 27 points to lead six Hawkeyes in double figures and No. 14 Iowa cruised to a 99-76 victory over Penn State on Sunday in Big Ten Conference play.

The 6-foot-4 sophomore made 13 of 19 shots and her only free throw for the Hawkeyes (11-2, 2-0), who bounced back from a 90-64 loss to No. 1 Connecticut. Heiden also grabbed nine rebounds, playing 27 minutes.

Chazadi Wright had 16 points and six assists for Iowa. Taylor Stremlow and Hannah Stuelke both scored 14 with Stuelke adding eight rebounds. Reserve Addison Deal had 13 points and freshman Journey Houston pitched in with 11 points and 11 rebounds off the bench for her first double-double.

Freshman Tea Cleante had 21 points and sophomore Kiyomi McMiller scored 20 to pace the Nittany Lions (7-6, 0-2), who have lost two in a row and five of their last six. Gracie Merkle totaled 18 points, 11 rebounds and six of her team’s 20 turnovers.

Wright sank two 3-pointers and scored 12 in the first quarter to power Iowa to a 29-14 lead.

Cleante had nine points in the second quarter, Merkle added seven and Penn State outscored Iowa by three to trail 49-37 at intermission.

Penn State shot 50% (6 for 12) in the third quarter to Iowa’s 45.8% but fell further behind after eight offensive rebounds helped the Hawkeyes get off twice as many shots in taking a 73-52 lead to the fourth.

Iowa took its largest lead at 81-56 on Heiden’s layup with 7:40 remaining.

Up next

Penn State: Hosts No. 4 UCLA on Wednesday.

Iowa: Hosts No. 20 Nebraska on Thursday.

PENN STATE (7-6): Mendelson 0-4 0-0 0, Merkle 8-10 2-3 18, Cleante 8-13 2-2 21, McMiller 9-20 0-0 20, Murray 2-3 0-0 6, Evans 1-3 0-0 2, Okokoh 0-0 0-0 0, McFadden 0-1 0-0 0, Ranisavljevic 2-5 0-0 5, Santana 0-0 0-0 0, Smith 2-4 0-0 4, Totals 32-63 4-5 76

IOWA (11-2): Stuelke 5-9 4-11 14, Heiden 13-19 1-1 27, McCabe 1-9 0-0 3, Stremlow 4-6 4-4 14, Wright 5-11 4-4 16, Hays 0-3 1-2 1, Deal 6-8 0-0 13, Houston 4-5 3-3 11, Levin 0-2 0-0 0, Mallegni 0-4 0-0 0, Totals 38-76 17-25 99

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Penn State 14 23 15 24 — 76

Iowa 29 20 24 26 — 99

3-Point Goals–Penn St. 8-23 (Mendelson 0-2, Cleante 3-7, McMiller 2-6, Murray 2-3, McFadden 0-1, Ranisavljevic 1-3, Smith 0-1), Iowa 6-23 (McCabe 1-9, Stremlow 2-2, Wright 2-6, Deal 1-1, Levin 0-2, Mallegni 0-3). Assists–Penn St. 21 (McMiller 4, Mendelson 4, Smith 4), Iowa 24 (Wright 6). Fouled Out–Penn St. Evans. Rebounds–Penn St. 27 (Merkle 11), Iowa 48 (Houston 11). Total Fouls–Penn St. 24, Iowa 11. Technical Fouls–None. A–14,998.

Ducks pull away late for win

EUGENE, Ore. — Nate Bittle scored 14 of his 26 points before halftime and Oregon used the second half to subdue Omaha 80-57 on Sunday night.

Tony Osburn scored 18 points for Omaha. The Ducks opened it up shortly after the break with a 17-4 outburst resulting in 59-41 lead with 10:09 left and led by double digits for the remainder.

Oregon appeared poised to make it a blow out early when it raced to an 18-5 lead seven minutes into the contest. But Omaha responded with a 12-2 run and capitalized on an almost four-minute scoring drought to pull within 20-17.

The Ducks resume Big Ten play this Friday at Maryland.

No. 7 Gonzaga has no trouble in victory

MALIBU, Calif. — Reserve Tyon Grant-Foster had 18 points and four blocks, and Braeden Smith and Davis Fogle scored 15 points apiece to lead No. 7 Gonzaga to a 96-56 win over Pepperdine in the West Coast Conference opener for both teams.

Gonzaga (13-1), in its last West Coast Conference season before moving to the Pac-12 next season, displayed the same dominance that helped it win 26 WCC titles. The Bulldogs seemingly dunked and scored at will in winning their sixth straight game since their only loss of the season, against Michigan on Nov. 26. The Bulldogs have a 50-game win streak over the Waves (5-9, 0-1). Yonatan Levy led Pepperdine with 15 points.

From Mirror, wire reports

Suspensions handed out after nasty fight

NEW YORK (AP) — New Orleans Pelicans guard Jose Alvarado has been suspended two games and Phoenix Suns center Mark Williams has been suspended one game for their roles in a fight during the third quarter of Saturday night’s game.

The NBA announced the suspensions, that come without pay, on Sunday.

Alvarado will miss the Pelicans’ home game against the New York Knicks tonight and their game at the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday. Williams will miss tonight’s game at the Washington Wizards.

The 7-foot-1 Williams and 6-foot Alvarado exchanged punches following a foul call on Alvarado. Phoenix won 123-114 for a two-game sweep of a back-to-back set between the teams in New Orleans.

Alvarado was trying to fight through a ball screen set by Williams when the fight broke out.

Alvarado pushed Williams out of the way while playing defense and was called for a foul. Williams then shoved Alvarado in the back. Alvarado turned toward Williams and the two exchanged words before grabbing each other and throwing punches. Both players landed right hands before being separated and then ejected.

Neither player commented after the game.

Phoenix coach Jordan Ott attributed the fight to competitiveness and fatigue.

“I saw it start, and then all of a sudden everyone jumped in,” Ott said. “Obviously, it happens. It just feels like the lack of sleep the second night of a back-to-back, something always tends to happen. Last night, there were a lot of free throws; tonight there wasn’t as much. They let us play tonight, which is something we enjoy. They got tangled up, and obviously they both got thrown out.”