Gopher Basketball
The Gophers led the entire way as Vincent Grier opened the game up with a dunk and ended up scoring seven of Minnesota’s last 12 points in the final minutes, securing the four point win. While Grier was dominant throughout the entire game, the Gophers failed to put the Nittany Lions away after multiple opportunities.
After opening up a quick 13-4 lead six minutes into the game, Penn State fought back as Aaron Johnson hit a jumper and a couple of free throws to cut the Gopher lead to two points. After a pair of Danny Morrissey (more on him later) free throws to cut the Gopher lead to 17-15, Minnesota went on a 13-0 run and opened a commanding 30-15 lead.
Ben Luber hit a jumper and Morrissey hit his first of many (still more on him later) three-pointers to cut the Gopher lead to 10 points. But a hot shooting Grier and an opportunistic Brent Lawson fueled a late first half surge giving the Gophers a 40-26 halftime lead.
After forcing 15 first half turnovers and holding the Nittany Lions to 30% shooting from the field, the 14 point halftime lead almost felt disappointing as the Gophers let a few opportunities to bury Penn State slip by.
Grier opened the second half in a similar manner to the first and gave the Gophers its biggest lead of the game (16 points) 42-26, but then the Morrissey show began. Like the musician Morrissey and his famous song, “œThe More You Ignore Me The Closer I Get” it was Danny Morrissey’s turn as “œThe More The Gophers D Ignored Me, The Closer We Got”. The freshman guard blew up in the second half hitting five second half three-pointers (six for the game on 6/10 from three-point land) and single handledly kept the Nittany Lions in the game.
Morrissey finished with a career high 22 points and was instrumental in Penn State getting itself back in the game. Travis Parker picked up where Morrissey left off and scored eight of his teams 10 points as Penn State cut the Gopher lead to 61-58 with 5:24 remaining.
But just as the Gophers started to tighten up, senior Aaron Robinson and Grier took the game in their own hands and secured the win at the free throw line. Grier had five points in the final 1:38 and Robinson added a pair of free throws as the Gophers hung on for their fourth straight win and 20th of the season.
Grier led the way with a game-high 27 points (8/13 from the field and 11/14 from the free throw line) and added four steals and four rebounds. Lawson had a Big Ten career high 14 points, Robinson added nine points, five assists and four steals, Jeff Hagen had nine points, six rebounds and two blocks and Dan Coleman chipped in with eight points.
The win was a milestone victory for the program.
- With its 10-6 conference record, the 2004-05 Golden Gophers record the second best conference record (percentage wise) in the last 23 years.
- Minnesota recorded four Big Ten road wins this season for the first time since 1981 -82. (not including vacated games).
- Dan Monson recorded his 150th career head coaching victory.
Minnesota now has a much needed and deserved week and a half break. With its “œbye” in the conference schedule this weekend, Minnesota can take a few days to enjoy the moment, heal up some lingering injuries, revitalize the emotions and fix a few kinks in the armor before it gears up for the Big Ten Tournament. The Gophers have earned their first bye in Big Ten Tournament history with its top five conference finish and will play in the 4/5 game on Friday, March 11 at 1:30pm.
The Gophers will look to continue the mantra they started tonight: Survive and Move On. No matter what happens though, it’s March and the Madness has begun”¦and for the first time in years, the Gophers will be a part of it (or so we hope!!!)!