Balanced Gophers End Losing Streak, Win 65-60

Finally a recap that’s a little more fun to write! The Gophers ended their five-game losing streak Saturday afternoon at The Barn with a solid team effort against the Nittany Lions. Penn State led by as many as 8 points in the first half before the Gophers went on an extended run to take 35-33 halftime lead, which they increased to as many as 10 points in the second half. Penn State made a late charge, but the Gophers made enough big plays to keep the final minutes relatively stress-free.

Lawrence McKenzie led the way with 19 points behind 5 for 10 shooting from (deep) three-point range. And, as usual, Dan Coleman had a solid game with 11 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 blocks. But the two Gopher stars have to take a backseat today to the play of two young Gophers who really stepped up big, helping to fuel the victory and the crowd. Sophomore Jonathan Williams put up 13 points and 14 rebounds in 32 minutes of play, and freshman Kevin Payton turned in a 12-point, 8-assist, 5-rebound, and 1-turnover performance in 38 minutes of action.

Williams was aggressive offensively from the start (exactly what the team needed) and showed a pretty nice hook shot that we’ll hopefully be seeing a lot more of. He also crashed the offensive glass and moved well without the ball, which led to a few easy baskets off nice looks from Payton.

With Limar Wilson battling the flu and not playing, Payton ran the point nearly the entire game. He started quietly but quickly got his confidence going and played his most poised and aggressive game of the season. He looked to push the ball up the court, drove aggressive to the basket a couple of times, and showed some impressive vision in finding open teammates. He also knocked down a couple of big 3-pointers in the second half, which is something that will hopefully continue.

Yes, it was only a five-point home victory against the bottom team in the conference, but this was still a very big win for the Gophers. They still had their struggles defensively (mainly in the first half) and on the defensive glass, but there’s still a lot of good to take out of the game. They got the win, they finally knocked down some shots and scored some points, they finally got some inside play from somebody other than Spencer Tollackson, and they hopefully got a breakout game from one of their most promising freshmen.

So maybe they can ride that momentum into Wednesday’s game at Northwestern and actually believe they have a chance to win.

Here’s the box score.

Talk about the game on our Gopher Basketball message board.