A stoppable force met a moveable object at the Bryce Jordan Center on a chilly Saturday afternoon, when Penn State welcomed Minnesota to the Bryce Jordan Center.
Dwelling in the basement of the Big Ten, both teams entered with extensive losing streaks, but it was the Nittany Lions who came away with the win by a final score of 77-75 on a last-second shot by freshman guard Kayden Mingo.
The victory was the first for Penn State (10-12, 1-2) in Big Ten play after an 0-10 start to conference action and a winless January.
How it happened
Penn State was at a disadvantage out of the gate, with forward Tibor Mirtič listed as out and forwards Ivan Jurić and Saša Ciani listed as questionable on the pregame availability report — neither ended up playing.
Instead, the Nittany Lions employed four guards in the starting rotation (Kayden Mingo, Freddie Dilione V, Dom Stewart and Eli Rice) with forward Josh Reed.
“We gotta figure it out, next man up. We had a bunch of little people in there,” head coach Mike Rhoades said after the game. “We just said ‘we’re not making excuses.’ You don’t cancel games when people get hurt or get out or get sick.”
Despite the depleted lineup, Penn State mounted an early 15-9 advantage, compiled entirely by Freddie Dilione V (eight points) and Josh Reed (seven points).
The Nittany Lions quickly subbed in Justin Houser to give Reed a breather, and Houser got penetration for a layup to make the score 19-14 heading into the under-12 timeout.
Despite a lack of bigs, Penn State surprisingly found success in the paint, as Melih Tunca and Kayden Mingo also scored on layups to create a 6-0 burst. Meanwhile, Minnesota tried to overcome the deficit from beyond the arc, connecting on just one of its first seven three-pointers.
As the game wore on, Rhoades got both Reed and Houser on the court at the same time, and the two found some chemistry with Houser dishing out to Reed for a three-ball to make it a 29-19 advantage.
Minutes later, Reed improved to 3-for-3 from deep, spurring Minnesota head coach Niko Medved to call a timeout with his squad trailing 36-23 — that didn’t stop Reed from hitting another triple out of the break.
Entering halftime, the Nittany Lions boasted a 41-31 edge, including an advantage in paint points.
After a quiet first half, Stewart came alive with five points in the opening six minutes, including an and-one to guide Penn State to a 48-37 advantage. The Golden Gophers began chipping away at the lead, while the Nittany Lions missed three-pointers on the other end to squander away possessions.
Following a collision, both Rice and a Minnesota player went to the floor, with Rice being helped to the sideline before being looked at by trainers.
“They said right away he wasn’t coming back,” Rhoades said. “He’ll be evaluated tomorrow. You bang heads with a guy in today’s world, you’ve got to follow protocol.”
The Golden Gophers narrowed the deficit to three with a seven-point run, capped off by a triple from Bobby Durkin, but Stewart drained a matching three-pointer to extend his hot streak and the lead.
The visitors remained persistent, cutting the lead to two on three occasions, aided by some generous calls from the refs. With pressure rising, Mingo took control with a layup, an and-one and a three-pointer in the span of two minutes to make it a 63-58 game.
Smelling their first Big Ten victory, Stewart and Dilione added six more points to bring the lead back to double digits.
With under four minutes to play, the Golden Gophers began a full-court press, forcing Mingo to burn a timeout with a 71-63 lead.
Following an and-one from Langston Reynolds, Reed slipped and fell at midcourt, turning the ball over and handing Minnesota another two points.
With just a three-point edge, Mingo once again struggled to break the press, resulting in a tie-up which gave the ball back to the Golden Gophers, who then picked up another two points on free throws.
After an exchange of layups at both ends of the court, Dilione missed a step-back 3-pointer before Mingo forced a tie-up on the other end, this time to gain possession for Penn State. On the other end, Mingo laid it in to make the score 75-72 with 46.6 seconds to play.
R Crocker Johnson battled to the rim for a layup, and a risky in-bounds pass was tipped before giving Minnesota possession down by one, leading to a foul. At the line, Reynolds sunk one shot for the tie and missed one for the potential lead.
“We wanted to make sure that we were trying to get downhill … We were getting outside the switches,” Rhoades said. “Not that we were always finishing, but we were putting so much pressure on them. It had to be a downhill game for us today, and so we weren’t going to change that.”
Locked at 75-75, Mingo held for the last shot, pivoting back and forth before hitting a lean-in floater for the lead as time ran out.
“Coach drew up the play for me, and that was all she wrote from there,” Mingo said.
Team leaders
Points: Freddie Dilione V, 25
Rebounds: Freddie Dilione V and Kayden Mingo, 5
Assists: Kayden Mingo, 4
Up next: Penn State will face one of the Big Ten’s finest, with a rematch against No. 3 Michigan scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Saturday in Ann Arbor. The Nittany Lions dropped the first meeting 74-72 in State College.
