The Penn State Nittany Lions have seen the gamut in the first 10 conference games of the season. They’ve nearly beaten the top of the conference, they’ve been blown out against the bottom, and, in true
Penn State fashion, have found new and inventive ways to lose games even when they were in prime position to win.
The silver lining for the Lions is that the last 10 games of the season were supposed to be much easier than the first 10, and, at least for the game, it sure seemed that way. A short-handed Nittany Lions team, playing against another short-handed team in Minnesota would serve to see if there is still some salvaging to the season.
Penn State, in fact, showed just that. The Lions, behind Josh Reed and Freddie Dilione V, exploded offensively to the tune of 41 first half points, something they had only done twice in Big Ten play, with the difference being that this time, it was 41 points in a lead.
Minnesota was not going to go down without a fight. They came down swinging in the second half. Several times, they cut Penn State’s double-digit lead to single digits, but Penn State always seemed to have a response. With about 13 minutes left in the second half, Minnesota did their final push. With the lead down to two points, it was put up or shut up time for the Lions.
A series of questionable calls (or no calls) by the refs were instrumental in erasing the once 13-point lead, swinging the momentum all the way in the Gophers’ direction. A once calm affair quickly turned into a chaotic back and forth, and the Lions kept holding on for dear life to the lead as each team kept throwing haymakers at each other.
As the egregiousness of each missed call grew, it seemed to have galvanized the Lions, who looked dead in the water as Minnesota made its comeback. Penn State took the two-point lead back to 11 points, but Minnesota was able to cut it right down to three. At the U4 media timeout, the Gophers employed a full court press that gave the Lions fits, which they used to cut the lead. Now only up 1 and fighting for their lives, Penn State found themselves in danger of losing the lead for the first time since it was 3-2, but a friendly bounce of the ball gave the Lions a jump ball, which they used to cushion the 1-point lead back to three.
A chaotic series of events with 46.6 seconds left saw Penn State lose its three-point lead, and now it was time to see if they could avoid repeating history.
Three. Two. One. Kayden Mingo makes the shot. Penn State wins its first Big Ten game of the season.
Player of the Game
Josh Reed – 18 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal
Reed did his best Myles Dread impression in this game —played the 5 out of necessity, filled up the stat sheet, and provided 3-point support when the team sorely needed it. If he can keep this up the rest of the way, the Lions might actually win a few more of these.
Random Observations
Small ball – Without Tibor Mirtič or Ivan Jurić in this game, Penn State went small out of necessity. We’ve seen small ball at Penn State before, and this game had the exact same benefits and drawbacks as always. It just so happened that the benefit outweighed the drawback.
Hello – Speaking of short bench, the absence of the more reliable big men meant more playing time for Justin Houser, who actually played well relative to how many minutes he’s logged this season. That’s a promising proposition for next season.
Refs – That’s all. It’s necessary, of course, to say they were bad in both directions, but the ones against my team were worse.
Looking Ahead
Penn State heads to Ann Arbor to face No. 3 Michigan in the return game of the series. Undermanned as they are, it’ll likely be a bloodbath. Game is on Thursday, February 5, on FS1.
