Penn State Basketball’s strong second half defeats Weary Golden Gophers, advance to Round 2
By Evan Smith
Penn State Basketball surged in the second half, beating the Minnesota Golden Gophers — who didn’t substitute all game, to advance to Round 2 of the Big Ten Tournament
Despite a cold shooting half, Penn State Basketball used a strong second half to defeat the weary Golden Gophers 60-51.
Penn State Basketball was led by Jalen Pickett (22 points), Sam Sessoms (14), and John Harrar’s six points and 12 rebounds.
With the win, the Nittany Lions‘ season will continue for at least another day.
PSU will now face Ohio State in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament. Penn State Basketball lost both games vs the Buckeyes this year.
News came right before tip that Minnesota starter and double-digit scorer E.J. Stephens was still in the locker room with a migraine. Minnesota did not make a single substitute until the 3:51 mark left in the game, when Stephens checked in the first time for a brief 52 seconds.
Penn State Basketball made a change to their traditional five, inserting Myles Dread for Greg Lee (along with Harrar, Johnson, Pickett and Lundy).
The game started out slowly, as you’d expect from two rather inept offenses. Sam Sessoms came off the bench at hit two threes, matching Golden Gopher star Jamison Battle’s pair from beyond the arc. Harrar became just the 5th Nittany Lions to score 800 points and 800 rebounds and Jalen Pickett scored his career 1,500th point.
Minnesota overcame an early four-point Nittany Lion lead and built a seven-point margin by going under the basket when Harrar sat.
A little up-tempo basketball by Sessoms helped rally Penn State offensively (this writer has been begging for this for months) as Minnesota’s lack of substitutions seemed to result in some heavy legs. After their ‘use it or lose it’ timeout, Penn State Basketball eschewed going for a ‘2 for 1’, instead opting for Pickett to dribble out the entire shot clock. His post-shot cut Minnesota’s lead to four and the Penn State defense held for a 28-24 halftime deficit.
Perhaps trying to advantage of their lack of substituting, Sessoms started the second half (instead of Dread or Lee) and it worked as Penn State took back the lead 33-32 with 16:25 left in the game and pushed the lead to three after Seth Lundy finally made his first three of the game.
A generous out-of-bounds call resulted in Pickett getting an and-1 to push the Nittany Lion lead to six, their largest of the game but Peyton Willis hit a huge three to keep the Golden Gophers within striking distance.
Seth Lundy made his second from deep coming out of the under-8 media timeout and it seemed Minnesota and their tired legs were just hanging on for dear life. Could Penn State land the knockout blow?
Pickett drained distance third three, pushing the Penn State lead to seven as Minnesota began hoisting tough shots and consistently came up short. Minnesota head coach Ben Johnson was forced to call timeout, trailing 54-47 with 5:03 left in the game.
Penn State’s second-half strategy forcing Minnesota to defend more possessions by increasing the tempo was making all the difference.
An unnecessary, rushed Greg Lee pointer resulted in a Minnesota bucket the other way, cutting the lead to just five at the under-4 media timeout. But Minnesota missed back to back three’s and after a Harrar layup on a great feed from Pickett and a Harrar steal ended the Golden Gophers chances.
Penn State will play the six seed Ohio State in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament tomorrow (Thursday, March 10th), tipping approximately at 9:00 pm on the Big Ten Network.