Gophers men’s basketball team squanders enthusiasm with home loss to Penn State

The best Williams Arena crowds this season for Gophers men’s basketball games have been on Saturday afternoons, when there was buzz surrounding the team and expectations were raised.

That was the case when the Gophers hosted Penn State after Ben Johnson’s team completed a sweep of Big Ten teams in Los Angeles to get in contention for a first-round bye in the Big Ten tournament next month.

Being favored isn’t a position the Gophers have been in often. They handled it poorly again Saturday, when they lost 69-60 to the last-place Nittany Lions in front of a season-high announced crowd of 11,292 at the Barn.

“That’s just kind of the immaturity today that showed,” Johnson said. “Our engagement was nowhere near where it needs to be to win a Big Ten game, especially when you’re coming down the final stretch.”

In a game eerily similar to a bad home loss against then-last place Washington on Feb. 1, the Gophers (14-13, 6-10 Big Ten) looked panicked and feeling the pressure. They missed 13 straight shots and went without a field goal for the final nine minutes of the first half.

“It wasn’t about X’s and O’s to a certain extent,” Johnson said. “It wasn’t about coverages. It was about mentally were we ready to be engaged, to compete, to play with force. All the stuff we had been doing. We knew they were going to play like that. This time of the year you have to play like that.”

The Gophers led 24-15 in the first half after Lu’Cye Patterson’s three-pointer at the 9:01 mark, but they trailed 28-26 by halftime and didn’t score another field goal until the second half.

Point-blank layups. Wide-open three-pointers. Midrange jumpers. Putbacks. Nothing dropped.

Femi Odukale had a team-high 15 points, but he fouled out. So did Patterson, who had 10 points. Dawson Garcia had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, but the Gophers shot just 34% from the field and 5-for-23 from three-point range.

“We didn’t come out with the same sense of urgency as we usually do,” Odukale said. “We knew they really had nothing to lose. And we kind of have something to lose.”

BOXSCORE: Penn State 69, Gophers 60

During a 20-minute span touching both halves, Penn State (15-13, 4-13) outscored the Gophers 31-11, including 13 straight points in the second half. This was the same opponent that recently ended a seven-game losing streak.

Frank Mitchell scored on a putback to end the U’s scoring drought and finally give fans something to cheer in the second half, but the Nittany Lions led 53-39 with 7:43 to play.

In wins against UCLA and USC, the Gophers rallied to erase deficits of 17 and 14 points. But Garcia and Patterson had season highs of 25 and 32 points in those games. They combined for just 21 points on 6-for-29 shooting vs. Penn State. Mike Mitchell Jr. had 10 points but on 4-for-13 shooting.

In the second half, Patterson, Odukale and Isaac Asuma hit six consecutive free throws to cut it to 60-57 with 1:43 left. But the Nittany Lions went 23-for-25 at the foul line to pull off their first conference road win this season.

Yanic Konan Niederhauser, who missed the first meeting with the Gophers because of an ankle injury, finished with 24 points and five blocks for the Nittany Lions.

Penn State was in desperation mode and playing to get within the top 15 in the standings to qualify for the Big Ten tournament. The Gophers, who won 69-61 in State College, Pa., on Feb. 4, aren’t guaranteed to make the conference tourney just yet. They dropped one spot to 13th place after Saturday’s loss.

Falling in the first of back-to-back home games, the Gophers now face even more pressure hosting 16th-place Northwestern on Tuesday.

“We all know what we’ve got to do,” Asuma said. “We can’t come out and play flat and then pick it up randomly in the second half. That’s something we need got to get better at and build off these last four games.”