Final: #Gophers fall to Penn State on the road. pic.twitter.com/EILGYzsZwY
— Minnesota Men's Basketball (@GopherMBB) January 6, 2016
Minnesota Gophers 77
Penn State Nittany Lions 86
A late second half run led the Penn State Nittany Lions back from a big deficit to beat the Minnesota Gophers 86-77 Tuesday night.
1. Penn State uses late second half run to steal the win
The Gophers led the majority of the way, and had built their lead to eight at 71-63 with less than six minutes left.
Joey with the 3 and it's 71-63 #Gophers! He's got 19 points and the Lions call timeout, 5:57 left.
— Minnesota Men's Basketball (@GopherMBB) January 6, 2016
But the Nittany Lions went on a 16-0 run to steal the lead away from Minnesota. During that stretch Minnesota went more than 5 minutes without a field goal.
By the time the buzzer sounded Penn State had outscored Minnesota 23-6 in the final six minutes.
2. Gophers knocking it down
Minnesota spent much of the night hovering right around 60 percent from the floor, and had it not been for the struggles over the last six minutes may have finished right around there for the night.
#Gophers are scorching shooting 64 percent from the field. Lead 46-38 at PSU.
— Marcus R. Fuller (@Marcus_R_Fuller) January 6, 2016
Instead, the Gophers finished shooting 52 percent for the night, including 11 of 20 from the three-point line.
Joey King equaled a career high with 22 points including 4-of-7 from behind the arc. Nate Mason chipped in 19 points and three assists for Minnesota.
3. Gophers burned by turnovers
The Gophers finished the night with 17 turnovers, including a couple of big ones during that 16-0 Penn State run.
During the later stages of the second half the Gophers had a pair of shot clock violations and a turnover when Minnesota couldn’t save a ball out of bounds.
Tweet of the Night:
Frustration setting in!
#Gophers 0-5 to start Big Ten last year and are 0-3 this year. Last time happened consecutive years was 1966-67 (0-3) and 1967-68 (0-5).
— Marcus R. Fuller (@Marcus_R_Fuller) January 6, 2016
Up Next:
The Gophers (6-9, 0-3) will host Northwestern at Williams Arena on Saturday.
