The Golden Gopher and the Nittany Lion wrestled, arm-wrestled and tried to one-up each other with tricks. Unfortunately the gamelong sideshow between mascots was a more even match than the basketball game at Conseco Fieldhouse.
Penn State started out shooting a dismal 1-for-11 and the esteemed Minnesota law firm of Rickert and Rychart laid down the law from there as the Gophers crushed the Lions 85-60 Thursday night in the first round of the Big Ten tournament.
A game that was at times sloppy, at times herky-jerky, but at no time in doubt, was dominated by Minnesota shooting (55.7 percent), notably freshman forward Rick Rickert’s 21 points in 28 minutes, (9-of-12 from the field), and senior forward Dusty Rychart’s 23 points in 26 minutes (11-of-12).
Over one five-minute-plus stretch in the second half Rickert and Rychart scored 15 straight Gophers points.
“Obviously everything was going pretty much right,” Rychart said. “I don’t know if it was my corn flakes or what.”
Rickert, the Big Ten freshman of the year, did not attribute any magical properties to cereal.
“It comes down to having your teammates getting you good shots,” he said. “We just got put in good positions.”
Minnesota (17-11), led by 15 points at the half, and at the end of the Rickert-Rychart run the lead expanded to 57-36. The margin hovered in that range the rest of the night. Penn State (7-21) hit 37.1 percent and was led by guard Sharif Chambliss’ 16 points.
“I thought the guys gave a great effort,” Penn State coach Jerry Dunn said. “We just didn’t have very many answers today.”
Minnesota, which has been looking for answers all week after surrendering the game’s last 10 points to lose by a point to Illinois Sunday, moves ahead–to play the Illini again Friday night.
Gophers coach Dan Monson said he wasn’t sure how his team would respond Thursday after the demoralizing defeat.
“You have no idea how you’re going to respond,” he said. “Our guys did a good job of channeling it in a real positive energy way.”
The Gophers lost to Illinois, 73-56, Jan. 2 in Champaign and 67-66 Sunday. They are definitely thinking about round three.
“It’s one of the worst losses I’ve ever been through,” Rychart said.
Minnesota guard Kevin Burleson, who contributed 16 points against Penn State, is simply happy to get another chance.
“We’re just going to play our hearts out,” he said.
