The 10th-seed favorites looked to be the better team for much of the night. They built an eight-point lead three times and looked poised to break the game open, and then Minnesota would swiftly responded with a run of their own. In the first half, Penn State’s combo of John Harrar and Mike Watkins battled Jordan Murphy and Daniel Oturu in the paint, and did a great job aside from being limited with foul trouble.
At the half, Penn State had a four-point lead that felt good considering they were able to weather several minutes with Watkins, Harrar, and Dread on the bench with two fouls.