Gophers rout Penn State
INDIANAPOLIS — Minnesota knows it would greatly enhance its NCAA tournament resume by beating Michigan State today.
Of course, the Golden Gophers want to get in the old-fashioned way.
Devoe Joseph scored 15 points to help Minnesota beat Penn State 76-55 Thursday night in the first round of the Big Ten tournament. Colton Iverson scored 12 points, Damian Johnson scored 11 and Lawrence Westbrook added 10 for the Golden Gophers (19-12), who advanced to play No. 11 Michigan State on Friday in a quarterfinal.
A win over the Spartans would give the Golden Gophers that magic number of 20 victories, and it would come against a ranked team. The sixth-seeded Golden Gophers have won five of their last seven, including a victory over now-No. 13 Wisconsin.
Talor Battle, Chris Babb, Andrew Jones and David Jackson each scored 10 points for Penn State (11-20). Battle, a second-team all-conference pick who averaged 18.8 points per game, was held to 3-for-10 shooting. He rolled an ankle in practice Wednesday and was clearly hobbling at times in the first half.
"I'm not an excuse-maker," Battle said. "I just had an off night. Going to the basket, really finishing, I didn't have a lot of confidence in my ankle or my lift. I didn't have that lift or that strength."
Penn State had won three of its previous six games, with all the losses to ranked opponents by a total of 14 points.
It was the sixth time in 13 years the Nittany Lions had ended up with the 11th seed, and they've never won in that position.
