CANCUN, Mexico (AP) - The Latest on the Cancun Challenge (all times local):
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11 p.m.
Elijah Childs scored 18 points and Bradley held on to beat cold-shooting Penn State 59-56 in the championship game of the Cancun Challenge on Wednesday night.
Down by four with 20.8 seconds remaining, Penn State (3-2) had possession but missed three shots before Lamar Stevens was fouled with 1.5 seconds left. Stevens made the first free throw and intentionally missed the second. Penn State grabbed the rebound and pushed the ball out to Myles Dread at the top of the arc, but his shot hit the front of the rim at the buzzer.
Bradley (5-1) won its first regular-season tournament title since winning the River City Shootout in 1983.
Stevens scored 27 points on 7-of-20 shooting from the field and made 12 free throws, and finished with a tournament-record 99 points. The rest of the Nittany Lions shot a combined 10 of 39 (26 percent) against the Braves.
Childs was 8 of 13 from the field. Darrell Brown, Bradley’s leading scorer the past two seasons, made three 3-pointers and finished with 16 points.
Childs scored seven straight points early in the second half and the Braves had a 39-35 advantage and led the rest of the way
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8:30 p.m.
Jimmy Whitt Jr. made a go-ahead baseline jumper with 4.4 seconds left, Jahmal McMurray hit a season-high seven 3-pointers and scored 27 points, setting a Cancun Challenge record, and SMU rallied past Wright State 77-76 on Wednesday night.
SMU trailed for the majority of the game. After a SMU turnover, Loudon Love rebounded his own miss and put it back to give Wright State a 74-73 lead with 30.5 seconds left. Whitt answered with a drive to the baseline, spinning his defender and hitting a fade-away jumper to retake the lead.
Mark Hughes was fouled going for a loose ball and made two free throws to give the lead back to Wright State with 10.7 seconds to go. But Whitt went coast-to-coast and sank a shot from about the same spot seconds earlier and Cole Gentry’s runner wasn’t close at the buzzer.
McMurray set a tournament scoring record with 98 total points over his three games. He opened with 34 points by making 14 of 17 shots and added 18 in a second-round loss to Southern Miss.
Whitt finished with 18 points on 9-of-10 shooting for SMU (3-3). Love had 19 points and 14 rebounds for Wright State (3-3).
The teams combined for just 11 free-throw attempts in the first 36 minutes and finished with 16.
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6 p.m.
Jamall Gregory dunked it for a late three-point lead and Jacksonville State made six straight free throws in the last 36 seconds to edge North Florida 83-78 Wednesday in the title game of the Mayan Division of the Cancun Challenge.
Maurice Dunlap made two free throws with 1.7 seconds left - one on either side of a North Florida timeout - to ice the game.
The win was the second straight for the Gamecocks, who opened the season 0-3. Jason Burnell led Jacksonville State with a season-high 23 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, and Gregory was named the divisional MVP after scoring 16.
J.T. Escobar led North Florida with 24 points coming via eight 3-pointers, including two in the final 26 seconds to keep the Ospreys close. His shot from behind the arc with 2.6 seconds on the clock cut the gap to 81-78.
Wajid Aminu added 15 points and Noah Horchler 14 with nine boards for the Ospreys.
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2:30 p.m.
Tyree Griffin scored 18 points, Cortez Edwards added 17 and Southern Miss beat Western Carolina 68-63 on Wednesday for third place in the Mayan Division of the Cancun Challenge.
Western Carolina took its first lead, 59-57, since the early going with 5:49 remaining, but that was the Catamounts’ final field goal of the game. Matt Halvorsen made two free throws with 1:40 left to pull WCU to 65-63, but after both teams missed shots, Griffin sealed it by making 3 of 4 free throws in the final 29 seconds.
Dominic Magee scored 15 points and LaDavius Draine had 13 for Southern Miss (4-1). Edwards had 12 points in the first half as Southern Miss led 42-37.
Onno Steger, Carlos Dotson and Kameron Gibson each scored 10 points for Western Carolina (1-5). The Catamounts shot a season-best 60.9 percent from the field in the opening half, but turned it over 19 times.
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