On Sunday afternoon, the Penn State men’s basketball team secured their first Big Ten victory of the season defeating Minnesota by the score of 77-75, and they did so in dramatic fashion.
With the score all locked at 75-75, Penn State had the ball for the game’s final possession and freshman star point guard, Kayden Mingo, reminded everyone why he is Penn State’s highest ranked recruit in program history.
Mingo drove the ball to the hoop, but was stopped by the defense and had to pick up his dribble. This did not thwart the rising star and he did not panic like a lot of freshmen may have done in that position. Mingo kept pivoting, found a slim opening of daylight, and stepped through for the last second game winning shot.
The Bryce Jordan Center erupted and all of Mingo’s teammates stormed the court after him.
It was total team effort, though. The Nittany Lions were down three of their interior players. Freshman starter, 7-foot center, Ivan Juric woke up this morning with a 103 degree temperature. Freshman forward Tibor Mirtic, who was on his way back to being active from an injured knee hurt his shoulder in practice the other day and was wearing a sling and junior Sasa Ciani is still working his way back from injury as well.
Redshirt junior Freddie Dilione, V. led Penn State with 25 points and five rebounds while adding three steals. Senior Josh Reed registered 18 points, four rebounds, two assists and a steal. Mingo finished with 14 points, 12 of which came in the second half. Sophomore Dominick Stewart rounded out the double-digit Penn State scorers with 12 points, two rebounds and three assists.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Head coach Mike Rhoades talked about drawing up the last shot of the game at his post game presser, “We wanted to make sure that we were trying to get downhill…what I was proud about Kayden there being a freshman guard in that situation is that he did not panic. He’s a strong pivoter. He’s a tough kid with the ball. So he didn’t panic, and he knew he had a little bit of time, and he was pivoting, and pivoting through, and got a little bit of an angle and step-through, and he got his shot blocked a bunch today around the basket with length and that time he got it off and that was nice.”
You can watch Coach Rhoades’ press conference in its entirety below.
