



The Gophers men’s basketball team was overmatched in the first half of a Big Ten game — again.
The latest opening chapter of a tired, old story came Saturday when Minnesota fell behind a mediocre Penn State team 45-31 at the break.
The twist was an about-face second-half comeback in Minnesota’s 83-74 win over the Nittany Lions at the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pa.
The Gophers (13-7, 4-5 Big Ten) have trailed at the half in all nine conference games this season, but with a 52-29 scoring surge in the second half, they were able to end a four-game losing streak in a win over Penn State (9-11, 3-6). Dawson Garcia led Minnesota with 20 points and Cam Christie had 19.
Minnesota won at Penn State for the first time since 2018.
“You don’t come back from being 16 down and win by nine if you are not a connected group,” head coach Ben Johnson said on the KFAN postgame show. “I got a locker room full of warriors.”
Minnesota had nearly erased the entire 14-point deficit in the opening four minutes of the second half, going on a 15-4 run to make it a one-point deficit at 49-48.
Coming out of a timeout and the Gophers holding onto a 72-71 lead, Dawson Garcia made a driving layup and was fouled. He missed the free throw, but Josh Ola-Joseph got the offensive rebound, finished a layup, was fouled and made the free throw to make it a 77-71 lead.
Johnson fist-pumped after Ola-Joseph’s rebound and postgame said that hustle play “in my opinion, kind of sealed it.”
In the first half, the Gophers struggled mightily after starting point guard Elijah Hawkins picked up his second foul with 6:49 remaining. With Hawkins relegated to the bench, the Nittany Lions went on a 15-0 run over the next four minutes to lead 45-31 at the half.
“We didn’t really have issues with (Penn State’s) press until he got out of the game,” Johnson said. “Then we just kind of lost our minds. When we got him back in the second half, it’s as simple as that. He did a great job leading.”
Hawkins picked up his third and fourth fouls within one minute and took a seat on the bench with 8:40 left in the game. He returned with six minutes left and fouled out with 1:18 remaining.
Backup forward Parker Fox stepped up with 11 points, four blocks and three rebounds. Johnson said on the radio it was “by far” Fox’s best game as a Gopher.
“From the start, he was locked in,” Johnson said. “I mean, free throws, everything he did, blocks. He had energy. I mean old man was juiced up today.”
Fox, who is in his sixth collegiate season, stepped up with center Pharrel Payne out with a lingering back injury. The U big man has been battling the ailment for a while and was laboring through his 29 minutes in the Wisconsin loss Tuesday.
Now Payne will get some extended time off before the Gophers host Northwestern next Saturday.
“He couldn’t go (Saturday) and he wanted to, but there was no way,” Johnson said. “We can buy him time now and cross our fingers and hope he will be ready to get a couple of practices next week. It was like icing on the cake to be able to rest him and get a win.”