UNIVERSITY PARK – Penn State rookie guard Kayden Mingo scored on a game-winning left-handed scoop shot with one second left to play to lift the Penn State men’s basketball team to a gutsy 77-75 win over Minnesota Sunday afternoon inside the Bryce Jordan Center.

Penn State led by as much as 13 in the first half and still led by double-digits at 71-61 with 4:44 remaining in the game, but Minnesota went on a 14-4 run to tie the game at 75-75 with 31 seconds to play. Trailing 75-72, the Gophers pulled within one on a layup by Jaylen Crocker-Johnson and then stole a long inbounds attempt across halfcourt to get the ball back.

Langston Reynolds was fouled and went to the line for two shots and a chance to give the Gophers their first lead since going up 3-2 in the opening minutes. He made the first but missed the second. Melih Tunca grabbed the rebound, giving Penn State the ball with just one second separating the game clock and shot clock.

The play the Nittany Lions had drawn up hit a roadblock, putting Mingo with his back to the basket and a defender in good position on him in the final seconds. The freshman used his pivot foot to go to his left and make the game-winning bucket.

Redshirt junior Freddie Dilione V led Penn State with 25 points and five rebounds while adding three steals. Senior Josh Reed tallied 18 points, four rebounds, two assists and a steal. Mingo finished with 14 points, 12 of which game in the second half. Sophomore Dominck Stewart rounded out the double-digit Penn State scorers with 12 points, two rebounds and three assists.

Eight points from Freddie Dilione V and seven from Josh Reed helped the Nittany Lions race out to a 15-9 lead just over six minutes into the game. Minnesota scored the next five points to trim the Nittany Lion edge to one at 15-14, but six-straight points from Melih Tunca, Justin Houser and Kayden Mingo gave Penn State a 21-14 advantage at 10:18 of the first half.

The Nittany Lions held the Gophers scoreless for a stretch of over four minutes as Penn State put together a 7-0 streak from 7:33 to 4:56 and pull ahead by 12 at 31-19. Reed drilled a transition 3-pointer at 3:21 to give Penn State its largest lead yet, 36-23.

The Gophers sunk back-to-back 3-pointers, but Reed kept the hot hand and drilled another of his own that put Penn State in front 39-29 with just over a minute to play in the first half. Penn State carried a 41-31 lead into halftime. The Nittany Lions held onto an eight to 11-point lead through the first five minutes of the second half until the Gophers used a 10-2 streak from 14:26 to 12:16 to pull all the way back within three at 52-49 with 10:01 to play.

Minnesota got as close as two at 57-55 and 60-58, but Mingo had an answer for each Gopher basket and his triple at 8:39 put the Nittany Lions up 63-58. The Mingo triple sparked a 9-0 Penn State run that built the Nittany Lion advantage to 69-58 with 6:31 left on the clock.

Penn State stayed ahead by at least eight points until free throws and points off turnovers fueled a 12-2 Minnesota run from 6:03 to 2:31 that had the Gophers back within one at 71-70.

Dilione V made a big layup at 2:09, Penn State’s first field goal since 4:44, but Minnesota answered right back with a layup of its own and the score sat at 73-72 in favor of Penn State as the clock wound under one minute. Mingo made a layup with 49 seconds to play to give Penn State a 75-72 edge. Minnesota answered with a layup and free throw that knotted the score at 75-75 with 31.3 seconds left.

The Nittany Lions had the ball with the shot clock and game clock varying by less than a second, and Mingo drove through the lane in the final second to put up the game-winning layup and send Penn State home with a 77-75 win.

With the win, Penn State earns its first Big Ten win of the season, moving to 10-12 overall and 1-10 in the conference with the victory, while the Golden Gophers fell to 10-12, 3-8.

The Nittany Lions finished the game shooting 50.0 percent (31-62) from the field and 38.9 percent (7-18) from three-point range. Penn State scored 40 points in the paint and turned 12 offensive rebounds into 20 second-chance points.

Josh Reed tied his season high with 18 points and made a career-best four 3-pointers. Kayden Mingo tallied his 15th double-digit effort and made the first game-winning shot of his collegiate career. Dominick Stewart finished with 12 points, marking his fifth double-digit scoring effort of the year.