UNIVERSITY PARK — Another big second-half lead had come and gone, and another winnable home game was slipping away from Penn State.
Penn State's Talor Battle shoots against Minnesota's Maverick Ahanmisi on Thursday, February 17, 2011. CDT/Christopher Weddle
Then the Nittany Lions grabbed it with both hands.
Talor Battle scored 28 points and drilled the go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:12 to play Thursday as the Nittany Lions defeated Minnesota 66-63 in the Bryce Jordan Center.
Penn State (14-11, 7-7 Big Ten) scored nine of the game’s final 12 points after watching a 10-point lead turn into a 3-point deficit in the final two minutes.
“This was another close game that came down to the wire, and we’re starting to win these games,” senior forward David Jackson said. “We’re learning how to play late in games when we’re down or we’re close.”
The Golden Gophers (17-9, 6-8), who lost for the fifth time in six games, used a 13-3 run to tie the score at 50-50 on Trevor Mbakwe’s layup with six minutes left and led 60-57 after Blake Hoffarber fed Colton Iverson for a dunk with 2:10 to play.
But the Nittany Lions, who had let a double-digit lead melt away in a 65-62 loss to Michigan 11 days earlier, didn’t want to give this one up.
“We couldn’t let that happen to us,” Battle said.
Andrew Jones tipped in a Jackson miss with 1:41 left to make it a one-point game. Tim Frazier rebounded a Hoffarber miss and tore upcourt, firing a pass to Jeff Brooks on the left wing. Brooks then hit a trailing Battle, who pulled up and drained his seventh 3-pointer of the game.
Minnesota’s Austin Hollins was whistled for a travel on the ensuing possession and Battle connected on the first of two free throws with 22 seconds left. But the officials flagged Jones for a lane violation before Battle could attempt the second, keeping it a one-possession game. The Gophers, who have been without point guard Al Nolen for the past month, then turned it over again, Hoffarber’s pass to Ralph Sampson sailing out-of-bounds with 14 seconds left.
Two free throws from Cammeron Woodyard extended Penn State’s lead to 65-60 before Hoffarber drilled his sixth 3-pointer of the game with seven seconds left. Battle made 1-of-2 from the line with five seconds left to put the margin back to three points.
Penn State chose not to foul — coach Ed DeChellis said he didn’t want to take his chances blocking out the Gophers’ enormous front line on a second free throw — and Minnesota had to settle for a twisting, fadeaway three from Hoffarber that didn’t draw iron as time expired.
The Nittany Lions’ starters, including Jones and Frazier, who were playing with four personal fouls each, came up big during the last few possessions. But it was the Penn State reserves who helped keep the team afloat during a critical first-half stretch.
By the 8:55 mark of the first half, Jones, Brooks and Billy Oliver had two personal fouls each. DeChellis turned to guards Woodyard, Jermaine Marshall and Tre Bowman, plus rarely-used senior forward Steve Kirkpatrick, to get the Nittany Lions through the rest of the half, and they did.
Woodyard hit an open three to make it 17-13 and Kirkpatrick took a pass from Marshall under the rim and dropped in his first two points in more than two seasons. He then found Jackson for a layup that made it 26-21 with 5:06 left in the half.
Minnesota took a 28-26 lead on low-post buckets from Sampson and Mbakwe (16 points, 12 rebounds) but Penn State went into the locker room with a 29-28 lead after Jackson knocked down a 3-pointer with 1:14 remaining.
The taller Gophers controlled the glass, out-rebounding Penn State 22-11 in the first half and 34-22 for the game, and shot 57 percent in the second half, but hurt themselves with early turnovers and couldn’t extend their zone far enough to reach Battle.
“We’re not a real offensive juggernaut,” said Minnesota coach Tubby Smith. “We’ve got to really take care of the basketball better than we did tonight.”
The Nittany Lions got only four points and three rebounds from Brooks but 13 points from Jackson, who had been struggling with his shot, and eight points and eight assists from Frazier, who hounded Hoffarber (18 points on 6- of-15 shooting) until he got into late foul trouble.
Penn State needed the win to keep its flickering NCAA tournament hopes alive.
The Nittany Lions could bolster its résumé in a big way with a win Sunday at No. 10 Wisconsin.
“We’ll enjoy this ’til 3:15 tomorrow,” Battle said, “and then we’ll get right back to worrying about Wisconsin and trying to win that game.”
Notes: Battle became the first Nittany Lion to post three 500-point seasons. ... Penn State committed a season-low five turnovers. ... The Nittany Lions attempted 31 3-pointers, three shy of the all-time high set in 2002 against Northwestern. Their 12 makes tied a season-high.
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