Three takeaways from Penn State basketball's win over Minnesota

Penn State Nittany Lions basketball extended its season for another day, handing Minnesota a 60-51 loss in the opening round of the Big Ten Tournament on Wednesday.

Penn State will now take on Ohio State Thursday at approximately 9 p.m.

Let’s get into three takeaways from PSU’s win.

1. A familar script

Penn State’s games down the season’s stretch are becoming a bit formulaic.

Shoot poorly in the first half. Lean on your defense to stay in the game. Figure it out offensively in the second half and rally.

Sometimes it’s enough. Sometimes it isn’t.

For the Nittany Lions on Wednesday afternoon, it was plenty.

Trailing 28-24 after shooting 32 percent from the field in the first half, Penn State rallied to connect on 13 of its 22 field-goal attempts in the second half.

Perhaps more crucially, the Nittany Lions shot 5-10 from beyond the arc in the final 20 minutes, with Seth Lundy and Jalen Pickett contributing a pair of triples each.

“At halftime, I felt like we played a little bit rushed,” Shrewsberry said. “We see what they do, right? We prepare for what they do. And we try to attack it. But sometimes it takes a little bit of time to see if they’ve changed something or to kind of settle into the game. I didn’t feel like we settled into the game in the first half.”

Certainly, the second-half charge was likely influenced by some fatigue on the part of Minnesota. The Golden Gophers turned to their bench for exactly 51 seconds of game action on Wednesday. EJ Stephens entered for Eric Curry with 3:53 left in the game and was removed for Curry with 3:02 to go. That was it.

Regardless of circumstance, the Nittany Lions will play at least another day thanks to their second-half spurt.

“We’re excited to move on and play again tomorrow,” Shrewsberry said.

2. Big game Jalen Pickett

After one of his worst games of the season at Rutgers, in which he shot 3-9 from the field for just seven points, Jalen Pickett became the talisman Penn State needed on offense once again.

He finished with 22 points, knocking in nine of his 14 field-goal attempts and three of his four attempts from three. Pickett also added four assists and seven rebounds for good measure, playing all 40 minutes for the Nittany Lions.

Pickett all but sealed the victory with a gorgeous jump pass to John Harrar for an easy bucket that put Penn State up by seven with 2:08 to go.

“He makes the pass to John there late where he jumps up like he’s gonna shoot, then dumps it down to him. That’s savvy,” Shrewsberry said. “That’s understanding the game, that’s understanding the situation. The guy doesn’t get rattled.”

The Gophers had no answer for his physicality when he posted his man on the block.

In his uniquely slow and methodical manner, Pickett ripped the Gophers’ defense to shreds.

He matched Gophers’ star Jamison Battle shot-for-shot. Battle’s efficiency tapered off in the second half on his way to a 19-point outing. Pickett kept on going.

“When he gets downhill it’s tough,” Minnesota coach Ben Johnson said. “Obviously, he was looking to post up, and it’s the fine line between arm-barring and picking up a foul and not picking up a foul.”

“Sometimes, really good offense can beat good defense.”

3. Penn State’s defense the difference again

The Nittany Lions came into this game at 8-3 this season when they hold their opponents under 60 points.

They cleared that landmark with room to spare, holding the Gophers to 51. That’s their third-lowest total of the season. The Nittany Lions were also responsible for one of the other two — keeping Minnesota to 46 points during a game in Happy Valley in February.

“When we do what we can control, we’re really good defensively,” Shrewsberry said. “We make people take tough shots. We give them one shot, then we go rebound it. Our guys have done that all season and they just dig in deeper and deeper as the game goes on.

“Hopefully you’re taking their legs, then some of those open threes, it just doesn’t quite feel the same.”

After a solid start to the game offensive, the Gophers shot 32 percent in the second half, and 2-11 from three-point range.

“We was getting good looks, it just wasn’t falling for us,” Minnesota forward Eric Curry said.