With a youthful group of forwards ranking last in the Big Ten in rebounding margin, the Penn State men's basketball team was already outmatched by Minnesota's strong frontcourt.

It didn't help that one of the Golden Gopher forwards had one of the best games of his young career.

Thanks in large part to the play of freshman forward Rick Rickert, the Nittany Lions were outrebounded 35-23 and outscored in the paint 46-18 en route to a 94-70 loss last night at Williams Arena in Minneapolis.

Rickert was virtually unstoppable against the Lions, leading the team with 26 points in just 27 minutes. He was 9-for-12 from the field, making seven straight shots at one point, including three three-pointers.

"I was impressed by his game tonight," Lion senior forward Tyler Smith said on WMAJ-1450 AM. "We did not do a good job at all stopping any part of his game. He hit a couple tough shots in the post, but for the most part he was getting good looks and any good player that gets open looks like that is going to hit shots and build confidence."

Rickert is averaging 12.1 points per game in his first season as a Golden Gopher. Though his 6-foot-10, 202 pound frame may not make him look like an extremely powerful inside force, he proved difficult for the Lions to stop inside, pulling down five rebounds.

His outside game, evidenced by his 25 three-pointers this season, made him even harder for the Lions to contain.

"I certainly think he's a great player," Penn State men's basketball coach Jerry Dunn said. "Obviously a highly recruited kid and rightly so. He's very skilled. He just has so many dimensions to this game.

"If you take away the inside moves he can turn at will and shoot the jumper over you. I think we had a hand in his face and he just made tough shots."

The Gophers' inside dominance did not stop with Rickert. Forwards Dusty Rychart and Michael Bauer both scored in double digits with 14 and 12 points, respectively.

Both players were also able to score by both pounding the ball inside and shooting from the perimeter.

Center Jerry Holman was also impressive, scoring 10 points, eight of them coming on dunks.

The Gophers pulled down 14 offensive rebounds and scored 20 second-chance points.

"I thought they went directly inside to their strength, which I think is what this team is all about in terms of their offensive scheme," Dunn said. "I thought their big guys just did a tremendous job. We did a very poor job of defending inside. To their credit they made some very good shots.

"I thought there were times when we didn't do as good a job as we needed to do keeping the ball out of the post, but even when they were in some tough situations, they turned around and shot over us.

"Their size really hurt us early on in the game in particular."

Last night's game marked the seventh straight time in which the Lions have been out-rebounded.

Dunn expressed frustration at the troubles his team had guarding the Gophers' versatile front court.

"For the most part their guys are very skilled, whether they're on the perimeter or inside," Dunn said. "There were times when we tried to take the high post pass away, and when we did they threw it inside.

Now when you're in that situation inside it's very tough to post double. They just turned around and shot over people, and when 6'10" guys are doing that it's really tough to help out with perimeter guys."