Frank Mitchell scored on a putback to end the scoring drought and finally give fans something to cheer, but the Nittany Lions responded.

Nick Kern’s dunk forced Johnson to call a timeout to make another adjustment before the margin got out of reach at 50-37 with 8½ minutes to play.

Defense wasn’t the issue in the first half with the Gophers holding Penn State to under 40% shooting and forcing seven turnovers. That didn’t carry over to the second half and made the scoring woes hurt even more.

In wins against UCLA and USC, the Gophers trailed by 17 and 14 points in the first half, but they pulled off comeback wins behind Garcia and Patterson, who had season highs of 25 and 32 points in those games.

The senior leaders both struggled Saturday, though. Garcia and Patterson combined for 21 points on 6-for-29 shooting from the field.

In the second half, Odukale made Gophers’ faithful erupt after a baseline slam plus the foul. Odukale converted the three-point play to make it 57-49 with 5:13 remaining.