Minnesota knows it would greatly enhance its NCAA tournament resume by beating Michigan State on Friday.

Of course, the Golden Gophers want to get in the old-fashioned way.

Devoe Joseph scored 15 points to help Minnesota beat Penn State 76-55 on Thursday night in the first round of the Big Ten tournament. Colton Iverson scored 12 points, Damian Johnson scored 11 and Lawrence Westbrook added 10 for the Golden Gophers (19-12), who advanced to play No. 11 Michigan State on Friday in a quarterfinal.

A win over the Spartans would give the Golden Gophers that magic number of 20 victories, and it would come against a ranked team. The sixth-seeded Golden Gophers have won five of their last seven, including a victory over now-No. 13 Wisconsin.

Still, Minnesota won’t buy into the hype, knowing that the only sure thing is a tournament title.

“I just know that a win tomorrow is going to get us to the next round, and right now we’re just focused on winning the Big Ten tournament,” Joseph said. “If you win the Big Ten tournament, obviously, you go to the NCAA tournament.”

Michigan State won both regular-season games against Minnesota by a combined eight points. Michigan State won the last meeting 65-64 in Minneapolis.

“Last time we played Michigan State we lost by one point and we made a lot of mistakes in the last four minutes, so I definitely think we can pull off the upset,” Joseph said. “They’re a good team and we’re definitely going to need to come and play real good basketball to beat them.”

Talor Battle, Chris Babb, Andrew Jones and David Jackson each scored 10 points for Penn State (11-20). Battle, a second-team all-conference pick who averaged 18.8 points per game, was held to 3-for-10 shooting. He rolled an ankle in practice on Wednesday and was clearly hobbling at times in the first half.

“I’m not an excuse-maker,” Battle said. “I just had an off night. Going to the basket, really finishing, I didn’t have a lot of confidence in my ankle or my lift. I didn’t have that lift or that strength.”

Penn State had won three of its previous six games, with all the losses to ranked opponents by a total of 14 points.

It was the sixth time in 13 years the Nittany Lions had ended up with the 11th seed, and they’ve never won in that position.

Minnesota won both regular-season matchups with Penn State by a combined seven points. The Golden Gophers led by that many 2 minutes into Thursday’s game, and by more than that for most of the game.

The Golden Gophers led 29-15 late in the first half before the Nittany Lions rallied. A 3-pointer, then a long 2-point jumper by Babb with 3 seconds left in the first half cut Minnesota’s lead to 29-20 at the break.

Minnesota shot 46 percent in the first half and was above 50 percent for most of the first 20 minutes. Westbrook scored all 10 of his points in the first half.

“I thought Minnesota played very, very well,” Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said. “They shot the ball well, they executed. We really didn’t have any answers for them.”

Penn State cut its deficit to 33-25 early in the second half, but Minnesota responded quickly. Blake Hoffarber made a 3-pointer, then Joseph made a deep 3-pointer from beyond the top of the key over Battle to make it 41-27 with 15 minutes to play.

Minnesota continued the onslaught and led by as many as 27 points in the second half. The Golden Gophers made 6 of 10 3-pointers after the break.

Minnesota hopes to carry the momentum into Friday’s game.

“When you get in a single-elimination tournament like this, it’s all or nothing, do or die,” Smith said. “We still have an opportunity to reach one of the goals we had set for ourselves this year and this group has been very good about staying focused.”