Balanced Attack Leads Gophers Past PSU 77-66

Just days earlier the Penn State Nittany Lions shocked the college basketball world and upset Illinois at Assembly Hall. On Wednesday night they jumped out to a 10-0 lead over the Minnesota Gophers and all seemed normal. But the Gophers refused to roll over and received a much needed boost from their trio of sophomores and some hot shooting from senior Adam Boone as they won by double digits for the second time in the last three games, 77-66.

The Gophers got off to a very slow start as the Nittany Lions jumped out to a 10-0 lead before a Maurice Hargrow free throw seven minutes into the game got the Gophers on the scoreboard. But then the sophomore trio of Spencer Tollackson, Dan Coleman and Rico Tucker brought energy and scoring off the bench as the Gophers rallied right back with a 10-point run of their own to tie the game.

Tucker had a monster dunk to give the Gophers their first lead of the game at 14-12 and the two teams traded baskets back and forth for the rest of the half before Penn State took a 27-25 lead into halftime. Coleman had seven first half points, Tollackson added six and Tucker had four points, as the sophomores kept the Gophers in the game.

Minnesota came out strong in the second half as Boone hit Vincent Grier on an alley-oop to start the half and Boone followed that up with a three-pointer to give the Gophers a quick three-point lead.

After trading baskets and leads, the Gophers trailed 50-49 and then caught fire from behind the arc and at the free throw line. Boone hit a few huge three-pointers, Tucker nailed a jumper in transition and Coleman broke out of his slump with a big second half. To top it off, the entire team was almost perfect from the free throw as they went 22/25, which was instrumental in the Gophers’ opening the lead up and ultimately hanging on for the 77-66 win .

The double digit win was the teams second in its last three games and was its first road conference win of the season. The Gophers improve to 2-7 in Big Ten play, but more importantly had a well balanced scoring attack with Boone leading the way with a game-high 20 points, Grier had 16 points (a perfect 10/10 from the free throw line) six assists and eight rebounds, Coleman also had 16 points and eight rebounds and Tucker added 11 points.

The Gopher season has been void of many opportunities to smile, but over the last two weeks, the team has come together and provided two solid wins. Tonight was an important step as quite a few players broke out of slumps and hopefully developed a level of confidence that can be leveraged in the last half of the Big Ten season.

The road in the Big Ten leaves little time for celebration as the Gophers return home to The Barn on Saturday to take on 12th ranked Michigan State.

Is a two-game winning streak too much to ask for?