University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota Postgame Notes
2/24/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Minnesota-Penn State Notes
Today’s victory was Minnesota’s seventh in a row over Penn State and improved the Golden Gophers to 15-3 overall and 8-1 at home vs. the Nittany Lions (not including the Gophers’ vacated stretch of games from 1994-99)
The Gophers’ win was also Minnesota’s sixth in a row at home over the Lions... The Gophers have not lost to Penn State since falling in University Park in 2004... The Gophers’ last loss to the Lions at Williams Arena dates to the 2001 season.
Minnesota Head Coach Tubby Smith improved to 2-1 all-time vs. Penn State with the win.
Today’s attendance was 13,222, nearly 2,500 more fans than watched last year’s battle between the Gophers and Lions in Minneapolis, which drew 10,843.
Today’s crowd of 13,222 increased Minnesota’s total attendance this season to 194,360, an average of 12,957 per game for 15 games... Last year, the Gophers drew 186,554 for the season, an average of 10,974 for 17 games.
Golden Gopher Team Notes
Minnesota trailed 37-35 at the half before pulling out the come-from-behind win... The Gophers have now posted comeback victories in each of their last two games... Minnesota trailed Michigan 35-34 at the break on Thursday... The Gophers’ victory today marked just the third time in 12 games this season that Minnesota has comeback to win after trailing at intermission (3-9).
With today’s win, Minnesota has now won back to back games in Big Ten play three times this season... The Gophers have yet to string together three straight conference wins this season.
Minnesota collected 34 rebounds to Penn State’s 33... It is the first time the Gophers have outrebounded an opponent since they outboarded Iowa, 31-23 on Feb. 9.
With just 11 turnovers today, the Gophers have had 11 or fewer miscues in three of the last four games.
Penn State’s 17 turnovers were the most by a Minnesota opponent since Wisconsin had 18 on Feb. 3.
Minnesota’s bench outscored Penn State’s 23-19... The Gophers have outscored the opponent’s bench in 21 of the 26 games this season... Minnesota is 16-5 when its bench outscores the opponent.
The Gophers dished out 19 assists on their 25 field goals.
Golden Gopher Player Notes
Lawrence Westbrook’s 15 points equaled his career high and were his most since scoring the same number at Michigan on Jan. 31.
With two rejections, Dan Coleman recorded his 102nd and 103rd blocks of his career.
Lawrence McKenzie finished with 11 points to reach double figures for the 18th time this season and 70th time in his career... With three 3-point field goals, he also moved past Vashon Lenard into fourth place on the Gophers’ all-time 3-point field goal chart with 138 for his career.
With three 3-point field goals, Blake Hoffarber has connected on at least on triple in 22 of 26 games this season... He has 58 on the year, which is tied for eighth on Minnesota’s single-season chart.
Jon Williams tied his season-high with eight points... He scored the same number earlier this season vs. both North Dakota State and Army.
