Gopher Basketball
Robinson got off to a quick start as he hit his first three-pointer just one minute into the game and was instrumental in the Gophers opening up an early 11-6 lead. He ended up hitting three three-pointers in the games first five minutes.
Penn State fought off Robinson’s early barrage and stuck with the Gophers as Geary Claxton kept the Nittany Lions in the game as he had nine points in games first ten minutes as PSU trailed by a point, 21-22.
Following Claxton’s early start, the Gophers defense took over as it held the Nittany Lions without a field goal for more than 11 minutes, going on a 19-6 run to close out the half up 41-28. In the stretch, Robinson hit two more three pointers (giving him five in the first half). Minnesota’s front line assisted Robinson as the trio of Jeff Hagen, Spencer Tollackson and Dan Coleman hit the boards hard and traded lay-ups and dunks.
Robinson continued his hot hand early in the second half and provided his most prolific shot of the game as he converted a rare four-point play as he was hit on the hand while netting a three-pointer giving him a team high 19 points for the game.
As Robinson began to cool down in the second half, Hagen took over. The senior center punished the Nittany Lions down low scoring eight points and attacking the glass. Hagen finished with an impressive 18 points on a perfect 8/8 from the field, as well as eight rebounds, four blocks and four assists.
The senior combo of Hagen and Robinson led to an 18-6 run to open the second half giving the Gophers a commanding 59-34 lead with 13:51 remaining. While Hagen was dominating on the offensive end, Rico Tucker provided the spark on the defensive end as he had two big time blocks on the perimeter and both times he came up with the rebounds.
The Gophers were dominant on the boards all night, out rebounding Penn State 42-33. The 42 rebounds is a season high for the Gophers. Minnesota also played great defense all night holding the Nittany Lions to just 34.6% from the field. The Gopher big men (Hagen, Tollackson, J’Son Stamper and Coleman) traded off guarding PSU’s, Aaron Johnson, as they held him to 12 points and four rebounds.
On a night when the Gophers leading scorer, Vincent Grier, was relatively quiet (ok, I guess 13 points is not that quiet), the team relied on defensive pressure, points in the paint (Gophers dominated this with 34 compared to 12 for Penn State) and Robinson’s hot hand.
The Gophers improve to 11-3 overall and 1-0 in Big Ten play and are in the midst of a nine-game winning streak, the longest in the Dan Monson era. The Gophers will welcome Gene Keady and the Purdue Boilermakers on Wednesday night. The game will mark the last time that Keady coaches at The Barn.
Here’s the box score.