Golden revenge as Penn State Basketball destroys Minnesota

Penn State Basketball made it two in a row, and picked up another B1G win, over the Minnesota Golden Gophers

STATE COLLEGE, Pa — Penn State Basketball blew out a tired Golden Gophers team, beating Minnesota 67-46 Thursday afternoon inside the Bryce Jordan Center.

The Nittany Lions were led in scoring by Jalen Pickett with 20 and Harrar added 10 points and 10 rebounds.

The win pushes Penn State Basketball within a game of .500, the somewhat mythical hurdle needed for a potential NIT invitation at 11-12, 6-9 in conference with some winnable games ahead.

The odd 4:00 pm midweek start time (due to the COVID-19 postponement), a half filled student section — despite free tickets to any student —  and very few other fans didn’t exactly set the stage for an instant classic.

Both Penn State Basketball and Minnesota reacted accordingly with turnovers on three of the first four possessions.

A Caleb Dorsey three pointer opened a 6 point Nittany Lion lead as Minnesota started the game 2-12 from the field.  A Sessoms scoop and Pickett three forced a Minnesota timeout dwn 16-5 with 10:48 left in the opening half.  PSU shooting at a 50% compared to the Golden Gophers 16.6% was the difference out of the gate.

Another Minnesota miss around the basket was followed by a lapse on defense, leading to an easy Jevonnie Scott slam gave Nittany Lion fans hopes of blowing out a Minnesota team that beat them just five days ago.

Four Golden Gopher mid-range numbers cut the lead to five but a Seth Lundy three ended a thrre minute dry spell for PSU and some nice backdoor cuts pushed the PSU back quickly back to 11.

But, a late Minnesota three, an uncalled timeout (again), not utilizing a ‘two for one’ (again!), before a forced end of shot clock shot gave the Golden Gophers a chance to edge closer but their last shot changed away and PSU led 27-19 at the half.  The key difference in the first half Minnesota’s ugly 8-24 shooting.

The Nittany Lions have had numerous awful starts to the second half but continued cold shooting from Minnesota and two Pickett layups made a 12-point lead seem almost insurmountable.  Could this be the first wire to wire win for Penn State in a long, long time? Bonus points if you can remember our last win leading the entire game…

Minnesota hit two threes to try and keep the game close but they looked like a team playing their 5th game in 11 days as they provided little resistance for Pickett and company to get the basket at will.

The Nittany Lion lead ballooned to 14 after a Dread jumper as Penn State refused to five the Golden Gophers any life. Within 29 seconds of Pickett dribbling and hitting a fadeaway, a Minnesota airball and another Pickett drive gave PSU their largest lead of the night at 18 with just over ten minutes to go.  A Dallion Johnson and-1 and Jalen Pickett deep three pushed the lead to 24, forcing another Minnesota timeout and all but ending the game.

And the last wire to wire win? The other conference blowout win, home vs Rutgers 36 days ago.

The Nittany Lions head to Maryland on Monday in search of their second conference road win. The game will be on ESPN 2 at 7:00 pm.