Minnesota’s men’s basketball team has shown a penchant for falling behind in games, only to rally late for victory. It’s not a great recipe for success, but it certainly worked in a pair of victories last week at Southern Cal and UCLA.

The Gophers returned from that trip to Los Angeles with the confidence they can beat good Big Ten rivals, but coach Ben Johnson came back worried that his team would rely on the rally in Saturday’s return home against Penn State.

“That’s all we talked about after our trip,” Johnson said.

It didn’t take.

After a strong start, Minnesota struggled for large swaths of Saturday’s game at Williams Arena, and while they trimmed a 14-point second-half deficit to 60-57 with 1:44 remaining, it was too little too late in a 69-60 loss to the Nittany Lions.

“Our (intensity) should be ramped up even more after the way we played in California,” Johnson said. “That is the toughest part about this loss; we spent all of our time talking about that. I mean, every waking moment.”

With a chance to essentially seal a Big Ten tournament bid on Saturday, the Gophers instead gave hope to another conference team fighting to extend its season into the conference tournament and a chance to win the Big Ten’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Instead, they fell into old habits that they’re just not good enough to overcome. Minnesota had leads of as many as nine points through the game’s first 11 minutes. Then it all came apart for the Gophers, who went without a field goal for the final 9:01 of the first half.

“Before the game started, we knew that they really don’t have nothing to lose, and we kind of have something to lose,” said guard Femi Odukale. “But our mindset is just to win every game we have.”

Despite picking up two quick fouls, Odukale scored a game-high 15 points for Minnesota and keyed a late rally that fell short despite the encouragement of a lively, and fairly robust, crowd of 11,202 at the Barn.

The Gophers won the previous meeting between the teams on Feb 5 at University Park, 69-61, but the Nittany Lions were missing a big piece in that game, 7-foot center Yanic Konan Niederhauser, who missed the last meeting because of a sprained ankle. And, boy, did it make a difference.

Konan Niederhauser just about had his way in the paint and scored a game-high 24 points, to go with seven rebounds and five blocks, as Penn State strung together two straight wins for the second time since they won four in a row Dec. 14-Jan. 2.

“I thought it was his best game of the season,” Penn State coach Mike Rhoades said.

Minnesota (14-13, 6-10 Big Ten) didn’t have the size to contend with Konan Niederhauser, a slippery center who weaved his way through post traffic — and undersized defenders to make 9 for 14 shots from the floor. He also made 6 of 7 free throw attempts.

On the other end, the Gophers got little scoring from their bigs — even Big Ten co-scoring leader Dawson Garcia (19.7 points per game), who finished with a game-high 10 rebounds but was 3 for 16 from the field and finished with 11 points, four assists and three turnovers. Parker Fox and Frank Mitchell combined for four points on 2-for-7 shooting.

Minnesota won the turnover battle (10-14), rebounded about even (36-34) and scored more points off turnovers (19-8), but the Gophers were outscored in the paint 32-24 — and that was after they started playing their game late.

“Again, it goes back to engagement, physicality,” Johnson said. “We’ve played against guys that are just as tall as (Konan Neiderhauser) that have rolled to the rim, and we’ve been there with force, and we’ve made them have to make plays out of the post. We’ve got our ball-screen coverages really tough.

“Nothing against Penn State because they won the game, but there was nothing they did that we haven’t seen before or covered at a high level. Again, that’s the disappointing part.”