UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State men's basketball team earned its most dominant Big Ten victory of the season Thursday afternoon as the Nittany Lions cruised to a wire-to-wire 67-46 victory over Minnesota to pick up their second win in three days at the Bryce Jordan Center.
The 21-point victory marked Penn State's largest-ever win over the Gophers as the Nittany Lions had it firing on all cylinders in the second meeting in five days with Minnesota. Penn State shot 53.8 percent (28-for-52) from the field, while the Nittany Lion defense was characteristically stout and held the Gophers to just 46 points on 32.1 percent (17-for-53) shooting.
Senior guard Jalen Pickett led the Nittany Lions with 20 points on 9-14 shooting, his third 20-plus point game of the season. Senior guard Myles Dread added 12 points on 5-6 shooting, including a pair of three pointers. Graduate student John Harrar recorded his second-straight double-double, finishing with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Nittany Lions held the Gophers without a basket on their first four shots and led 6-5 at the first media timeout. Harrar scored on a pair of layups with Pickett adding bucket.
- Penn State rushed out to a 16-5 lead with 10:48 left in the first half thanks to a 10-0 scoring spree. The run included a pair of layups from Sam Sessoms and a three pointer each from Caleb Dorsey and Pickett before Minnesota called timeout. Out of the timeout, Sessoms dished off to Jevonnie Scott for a two-handed slam to extend the scoring run to 12-0 before Minnesota finally made a basket.
- The Gophers proceeded to make the next four baskets to close the gap back to five at 18-13 before Lundy drilled a triple from the right wing to stop the spurt.
- Penn State's defense turned up a notch towards the end of the half and held Minnesota to just three points over the final 5:28 of the half. The Nittany Lions went into the break leading 27-19.
- The Nittany Lions started hot in the second half with a 9-3 run to extend their advantage to a then-game-high 14 points at 36-22. Pickett navigated through the paint for a pair of layups, Dallion Johnson hit a three from the left corner, and Myles Dread scooped in a layup high off the glass in the run.
- Dread drained Penn State's fifth triple of the game after a good shot fake to put Penn State in front 47-33 at the under-12 media timeout.
- Penn State's lead grew quickly to 57-33 at 9:03 thanks to another 10-0 run for the Nittany Lions. Pickett controlled the offense with seven of the points in that run, including a long-range three-pointer to reach the 20-point mark for the game.
- Penn State put an exclamation point on the victory when Jaheam Cornwall tossed an alley-oop to Jalanni White for a big slam. PSU cruised to its 67-46 win from there.
GAME NOTES
- Penn State's 21-point victory over Minnesota was its largest ever against the Gophers. The Nittany Lions' previous high was a 20-point win, 82-62, on Feb. 14, 2001 at Minnesota.
- The win marked Penn State's first 20+-point victory in the Big Ten since Feb. 19, 2019 against Nebraska (95-71).
- The Nittany Lions held Minnesota 21.6 points below their season scoring average of 67.6 points per game. It's the 15th time in the last 20 games that the Penn State defense has held its opponent at least 10 points under its season scoring average.
- Penn State outscored Minnesota in the paint, 40-12. The Nittany Lions have outscored their opponent in the paint in eight of their last 10 games.
- The Nittany Lions improved to 9-4 at home this season and are now 74-33 in the Bryce Jordan Center since the start of the 2015-16 season.
- Jalen Pickett notched his third 20-point game of the season and 18th double-digit scoring effort.
- Pickett's team high in scoring marked the 10th time he was Penn State's leading scorer this season, the most among all Nittany Lions.
- John Harrar's double-double was his eighth of the season and second-straight. He tallied 16 points and 16 rebounds in Penn State's win over #19 Michigan State Tuesday night.
- Sam Sessoms dished out six assists to tie his single-game best in Big Ten play last accomplished Jan. 11, 2022 against Rutgers.
- Fourteen different Nittany Lions entered the game.
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Micah Shrewsberry
Seniors Jalen Pickett and Myles Dread
UP NEXT
- The Nittany Lions are back on the road Monday night when Penn State travels to Maryland for a 7 p.m. tipoff on either ESPN or ESPN2.