UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Tony Carr surveyed the court and decided to drive. He leapt, drew a foul and sank two free throws with five seconds left to lift Penn State to a 52-50 win over No. 24 Minnesota on Saturday.
Referees had to go to a review to determine whether Carr was indeed fouled by Minnesota's Eric Curry and when they saw that he was, Carr drained his only two shots of the game.
Afterward, Penn State coach Patrick Chambers smiled when asked about Carr and his otherwise unimpressive afternoon that including an 0-for-6 shooting performance and six turnovers in 21 minutes.
"He wanted the basketball," Chambers said.
It's what the Penn State coach wanted to see at this point of the season. The young Nittany Lions (11-7, 3-2 Big Ten) have struggled to put complete games together like when they allowed a big lead to slip away at Michigan last week and fell apart in the final minutes.
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Even Saturday, the first half was forgettable after the Gophers went up by as much as 14 points and led 32-22 at halftime.
That's when the other aspect of Chambers' recent coaching lessons came into play-finishing out games and playing in end-of-game scenarios.
Mike Watkins led Penn State with nine of his 15 points in the second half and grabbed 15 rebounds. Payton Banks added 10 points.
The Nittany Lions mounted a 26-15 run over the final 17 minutes.
"This team is slowly, but surely growing up," Chambers said. "A long way to go to get a heck of a lot better, but we're going to definitely enjoy this one."
Reggie Lynch led the Gophers (15-4, 3-3) with 12 points while Jordan Murphy and Nate Mason added seven apiece.
"Disappointed to say the least," Minnesota coach Richard Pitino said. "It was about as disappointing as it gets. Not sure what we were doing at the end. We didn't block out twice, we got stops obviously, you hold a team to 30 percent, you think you have an opportunity to win the game."
The Gophers controlled the pace with physicality and a speedy transition game that worried Chambers heading in. Behind balanced scoring of Akeem Springs, Nate Mason and Dupree McBrayer - who all chipped in to help Lynch with five points apiece - the Gophers looked like they would sprint to a blowout.
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Ahmad Gilbert and McBrayer capped the first 20 minutes with a pair of 3-pointers - the first two of the game for either team - in the final 3:20. McBrayer's came from long distance and gave Minnesota a 14-point lead - its largest of the afternoon with less than two minutes left in the half.
Meanwhile, Banks and Shep Garner - Penn State's best 3-point shooters - were quiet in the first half. Both were 0 of 2 from 3-point range and neither made a basket until Banks broke through with a jumper midway through that snapped a nearly five-minute scoreless drought for the Nittany Lions.
But that drought didn't last.
Banks hit two 3s in the second half and the last one came with 2:12 to play when he pulled up, dropped the shot and tied the game 48-48 with 2:12 to play.
