The Minnesota Golden Gophers fell in a crucial late-season matchup to the Penn State Nittany Lions on Saturday afternoon at Williams Arena. The Golden Gophers, looking to solidify their chances of making the Big Ten Tournament next month, were unable to overcome a poor shooting performance as well as 24 points from Nittany Lions center Yanic Konan Niederhauser

Femi Odukale led the Gophers with 15 points on the day before fouling out in the second half with five fouls in 21 minutes of action. He was 4-for-4 from the field in the defeat including 1-for-1 from three-point range while going 6-for-7 at the free throw line.

Dawson Garcia had 11 points while Lu’Cye Patterson and Mike Mitchell Jr both finished with 10 points.

As a team, Minnesota struggled from the field on Saturday, shooting 34% including 22% from three-point range, making just five of 23 attempts. The Gophers did take advantage of 20 free throw opportunities, making 15 but it was not enough to overcome the otherwise forgettable day shooting-wise.

The Gophers also struggled in the paint at times, especially defensively allowing 32 total points in the paint.

Both teams started off shooting well on Saturday afternoon and it was the Gophers who found themselves with a quality 25-14 lead at the 9:01 mark of the first half.

However, an eight-minute stretch from 8:25 to 0:28 of the first half saw the Gophers miss 13 straight attempts from the field, allowing Penn State to turn a 24-15 disadvantage into a 28-26 lead at halftime.

Coming out of the break, the Gophers offense would appear to find some momentum, making each of their first four attempts but it would be false hope for the Minnesota faithful.

Minnesota missed 12 of their next 13 attempts over eight minutes, once again the Nittany Lions would take advantage of Minnesota’s misfortunes, embarking on a 17-2 run that allowed the game to go from tied at 35-35 to a 50-37 lead for Penn state with over eight and half minutes to go.

Minnesota would look to make a late run on Saturday after trailing by 11 points with just under four minutes to go, going on an 8-0 run, field by six straight free throw attempts, The Gophers cut the Nittany Lions’ lead to 60-57 with 1:45 to go.

Penn State, however, recovered from the near-disastrous stretch, closing the game out on a 9-3 run to defeat the Gophers 69-60.

The loss drops the Gophers’ record to 14-13 on the season and 6-10 in conference play. They now rank 13th in the conference and have just a 1.5-game lead over 17th-place Penn State following the loss. With three tough games to close out the season against Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Rutgers, the Gophers will be in a must-win scenario on Tuesday against the Northwestern Wildcats.