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STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- As soon as he joined his team for a shootaround earlier Friday, Albany coach Will Brown grew worried.His players were wandering the Bryce Jordan Center hardwood with their phones out, cameras snapping and videos rolling as they took in the sights and sounds of Penn States cavernous arena.A few hours later, Browns apprehension over whether his team was prepared to open the season against a Power 5 team had faded with its 87-81 win over the Nittany Lions.They call these games bye games or guarantee games or money games, the big boy is supposed to beat the little boy, Brown said. We didnt come here just to play in a nice arena and get some money out of it and all that stuff. We were here to win.They did so convincingly against the Nittany Lions who welcomed six new faces in the lineup and had one of its expected top-contributors out with an injury.Joe Cremo scored 22 points, Dallas Ennema had 20 points and David Nichols added 19 to lead Albany.Shep Garner made three free throws with 17 seconds left to pull Penn State to 82-79 but Cremo, Ennema and Marqueese Grayson combined to hit five free throws to ice the season opener for both teams.The Great Danes dominated the first half, leading 41-25 at halftime. They fended off Penn States late rally by controlling the glass and playing opportunistic offense.Albany pulled down 43 rebounds to Penn States 26 and scored 20 points off of fast breaks.Garner scored 17 of Penn States final 19 points and finished with 20. His teams unbalanced scoring pace wasnt what Penn State coach Patrick Chambers had in mind when he said Penn State would try to score 80 points per game, something they did just three times in regulation last season.We came all the way back but we cant wait to come all the way back in the second half, Chambers said. Weve got to understand that you have to play hard from the tip.BALANCED SCORING, AGAINThe Great Danes got contributions up and down the lineup all last season with Evan Singletary, Peter Hooley and Ray Sanders all averaging just over 12 points per game. Cremo also averaged double figures with 10.5 points per game last season and got plenty of help in the opener.A GLIMPSE OF WATKINSThe long awaited debut of big man Mike Watkins was a promising one for Penn State. The power forward was ruled ineligible by the NCAA last season and was a physical force in his first game, providing Penn States few highlights around the rim.The Philadelphia native scored the games opening basket on a nice turnaround jumper and chipped in three blocks and two rebounds in the opening three minutes. He finished with seven rebounds, five blocks and 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting.BANKS ON THE MENDA hamstring injury kept versatile forward Payton Banks out of Penn States exhibition against Lock Haven a week ago and he was rusty off the bench, going 1-for-5 in just nine first-half minutes before heating up and finishing with 14 points.Banks said he felt 100 percent before, during and after the game.BIG PICTUREAlbany: The Great Danes won nine of their last 12 games last season, but suffered back-to-back losses in the America East and CBI tournaments. They snapped that losing skid with a convincing win in which they led in nearly every statistical category.Penn State: With six new faces in the lineup, its going to take much longer for Patrick Chambers to find what pieces fit where. Hell continue to bring players off the bench to spread minutes around and mix veterans with newcomers to build chemistry. Guard Josh Reaves absence due to a lower leg injury could make the first part of that tougher with fewer players on the bench.UP NEXTAlbany plays at Cincinnati on Monday.Penn State hosts Duquesne on Sunday. Zach Gentry Steelers Jersey . The home side created most of the chances but struggled to break down Braunschweigs resilient defence, resulting in the Bundesligas 1,000th scoreless draw. Merril Hoge Youth Jersey . -- An ugly goal by Nick Bonino helped the Anaheim Ducks overcome the defensive-minded Phoenix Coyotes on a night when their ragged power play continued to struggle. http://www.steelerspronfl.com/Youth-Troy-Polamalu-Elite-Jersey/ . Radwanska, making her debut in the Seoul tournament, hit eight aces in a match that lasted 1 hour, 4 minutes at Olympic Park tennis stadium. "It was definitely a very good match -- I was playing really good tennis," Radwanska said. Greg Lloyd Jersey . Meanwhile, there were huge victories for Sunderland and West Ham over fellow relegation rivals, leaving the battle to avoid the drop up for grabs with the bottom 11 teams separated by just six points. Eden Hazard and Fernando Torres scored second-half goals to seal a fourth straight victory for Chelsea, which climbed above Arsenal and Manchester City in the standings ahead of their games on Monday and Sunday respectively. Louis Lipps Steelers Jersey .com) - The Montreal Canadiens will try to halt their longest losing streak of the season when they host the struggling New York Islanders in tonights clash at the Bell Centre. Dimuth Karunaratnes momentary doze on the batting crease and Peter Nevills sharp response to stump him, released a torrent of sanctimony familiar to anyone who has read much about the Olympics these past two weeks. The spirit of cricket had been trampled on by Nevills alertness, reinforcing Australias reputation as a team up to no good - or so the opinion went.Nevermind that Karunaratne had ignored the fact the ball isnt dead until it has returned to the bowler, or that wicketkeepers the world over are perpetually trying to catch a batsman out in this way and Nevill was a rare one to succeed. The moment drew out a chorus of tut-tutting that only really abated when Adam Gilchrist emerged to tweet the following: Nothing unethical about this one. Just a little bit lazy by batsman.Later, an instance was found where Darren Lehmann had been dismissed in more or less the same manner by Romesh Kaluwitharana in a 1996 ODI. A little like Mankading, Nevills stumping provided another instance where batsmen should be more conscious of checking their privilege.There was another cricketing point to the farrago, one of far greater import to Australia and borne out further as the fourth day at the SSC went on. If it was going to take an alert Nevills moment of opportunism to manufacture a wicket for the spinners on a turning and deteriorating pitch, then the tourists were going to be waiting a long time to get through Sri Lankas batting. How true this turned out to be, as Kaushal Silva and Dinesh Chandimal set about building a handsome lead.Irrespective of the result in this match, Australias cricketers, coaches and selectors were hoping to see signs of progress over five days, especially in the departments of batting and spin bowling. While Mitchell Starc has been the outstanding Australian performer in the series, and Josh Hazlewood has offered sturdy support, pace was always something of a sideshow in these climes. The greater onus was on the batsmen to build partnerships and big scores, and the spinners to take wickets through unrelenting pressure on helpful surfaces.The inclusion of Shaun Marsh and the batting evolution of the captain Steven Smith allowed for the former to occur at least in part on days one and two. Their partnership was something for the top six and their mentors to take home to Australia with a sense that at least two players had been able to show the way - even if the rest failed to capitalise on it.But the same could not be said for Nathan Lyon and Jon Holland when their turn came to exert an influence on the match. Rather than coming into their own on the same pitch Rangana Herath was able to use to harvest six wickets, Lyon and Holland were frustrated at length by impish Sri Lankan batting and their own inability to find the consistency required of spinners against opponents raised on a steady diet of slow bowling.Lyon and Holland are both bowlers capable of delivering high quality stuff - their best offerings are arguably more potent than those of Herath, being whirred down from greater heights and so able to gain greater bounce while also being loaded with plenty of revolutions. However the ability to land ball after ball in the same small area of the pitch while close-in fielders sweat on batting errors is what counts most in Asia, and on that count both have been found wanting.For this, a large degree of crredit needs to go to Sri Lanka, who have manipulated fields by canny use of sweep shots and heaves over the top at well-chosen moments.dddddddddddd As their latest centurion Kaushal Silva put it: We were positive. When you play on this kind of a wicket you need to manoeuvre the fielders around, you cant have fielders in catching positions. Our guys played shots and reverse swept so they had to put a fielder there. Those are the little things you need to do when batting, especially the sweep we did it quite often in the series, so that helped us to move the fielders so that they had to do something different which is not their plan.Nevertheless, Lyon and Holland needed to be able to counter with their own consistency, and a strong self-belief to stick at the task. Wicketkeeper Peter Nevill has had a ringside seat to this contest, and agreed that neither Lyon nor Holland has been allowed to get into any sort of comfortable groove. Our spinners have done their best to adapt as best they can and I think its been an admirable effort, but their batsmen have played spin exceptionally well and made it very hard for a spinner to settle, he said. Theyve swept really well, used their feet well, so a lot of credits got to go to their batsmen.What will be most troubling for Lehmann, Smith and the selection chairman Rod Marsh is the fact that day four in Colombo was a much better opportunity for Lyon and Holland to influence the outcome than any other juncture of the series. Certainly it was a world away from the scenario they faced in Galle, when a large first innings lead had been conceded. This time around the game was finally balanced entering the second innings, with the narrative to be written by the team that took the initiative through skill and mental sharpness.But rather than Lyon and Holland making use of the lessons they have learned over the past two weeks, it was Sri Lanka who emerged the stronger, as Australias spinners kept on trying to make adjustments in terms of pace, length and arm path. Both men landed the occasional delivery in the perfect spot, eliciting sharp turn and bounce. But they did not do so often enough to corner their opponents, and when the wickets did start to come later in the day, Sri Lankas lead had already assumed proportions never successfully chased on this ground. These belated breakthroughs were arguably serving more to open the game up for the hosts than the visitors - the opposite of what Australia had hoped for.Having made his debut in Sri Lanka five years ago, Lyon is now the most senior member of the Australian team in terms of Test matches played. He is also the song master, entrusted with the job of belting out Underneath the Southern Cross after Test match victories. It will be a source of enormous frustration for him that he has not been able to emerge as a decisive force in this series, and cause for the selectors to ponder the right combination to take to India next year.When the review of Australias defeat is undertaken as the chief executive James Sutherland has promised, more time will be spent analysing Lyons failure to perform as the lead strike bowler on tour than on an opportunistic stumping effected by an aware wicketkeeper. It should be, anyway. ' ' '