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Men’s basketball: Gophers crash hard in a 70-68 loss to Missouri

andy greder, pioneer press
·4 min read
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The Gophers men’s basketball team was acing its first real test of the young season on Thursday.

Minnesota had built a 20-point lead over Missouri in the opening 30 minutes, but turnovers and stagnant offensive flow in succumbing to the Tigers’ defense led the Gophers to failing the quiz in a 70-68 loss at Williams Arena.

Over the final 10 minutes, the Gophers answered nearly every question wrong.

Up 68-67 in the final 10 seconds, Minnesota guard Mike Mitchell fouled Sean East II; Missouri’s top scorer made the basket and one free throw to decide the game. Freshman Cam Christie’s jumper at the buzzer was off the mark.

Fans at a Golden Dunkers booster club event before the game were enthused by head coach Ben Johnson’s remade and fully healthy roster to start the season and early returns with wins against two lesser nonconference foes last week. The Barn was enthused by the Gophers’ fast start Thursday and extending the lead in the middle of the game, but some boos were issued at the end.

Under head coach Dennis Gates, veteran-laden Missouri (3-1) completely took over in the final 11 minutes with a heavy switching on screens on defense; Minnesota (2-1) didn’t make a basket in the final six minutes as the ball stopped moving on offense.

“The way (Missouri plays), they almost force you to, not a game of one-on-one, but you either got to set ball screens — you got to make a play,” Johnson said. “… When they switch everything, especially those last 10 minutes, they really cranked it up. When they are switching and denying and all that stuff, it’s hard to run offense, it’s hard to get the ball reversed.”

During one particularly ugly sequence in the final three minutes, the U had a 10-second backcourt violation, fouled Tigers’ Tamar Bates on a 3-point shot, which led to three made free throws, air-balled its own trey and turned the ball over again on the next possession.

The Tigers, a two-point favorite, represented the Gophers’ stiffest test yet this season. Missouri finished fourth in the SEC and advanced in the NCAA Tournament last season, but sent two players to the NBA.

The Gophers took advantage of Missouri starting guard Caleb Grill losing his cool over a no call and talking back to the official twice. The Iowa State transfer was hit with two technical fouls and was ejected with 13 minutes remaining, and Dawson Garcia hit all four free throws to extend it to a 15-point lead, 54-39.

It grew from there — until it all came crashing down.

“They upped the pressure a little bit and we went on our heals a little bit,” said Garcia, who led the U with 16 points. “We can’t, when you are playing a high-major basketball team, or any college basketball team, you can’t take your foot off the gas and you can’t take your attention away from the details of things.”

The Gophers offense also struggled with starting point guard Elijah Hawkins coming out of the game for the final three minutes. Johnson said it was his decision, in part, due to Hawkins’ turnovers and how Johnson wanted to approach things defensively.

In the first half, the Gophers toggled between white-hot and ice-cold shooting.

Minnesota started on fire, making its opening five 3-pointers to open up a 19-12 lead. Minnesota then missed the next four treys, but made two more to re-extend the lead to 30-20. After that, the Gophers had a more than five-minute scoring drought as turnovers stacked up.

The U had seven scorers — each between six and four points — and the spread-it-out approach led to a 38-32 lead at half. Minnesota shot 7 of 14 from deep in the half.

Pharrel Payne, who returned from an injury, was physical in the post for a put-back with 52 seconds remaining in half and then blocked a shot at the other end.

Last week, Minnesota beat Bethune-Cookman and Texas-San Antonio by 20 and 23 points, respectively.

“This game was really good for us, especially early in the year, we’ve got to learn from this game,” Johnson said. “We are going to be in this position again, without a doubt. There is going to be a game down the line coming up or in league play, where we have a lead and we will have to handle it better. There will be a game downtime line, where we have to get a stop. Can’t foul a shooter. You take care of the ball offensively. Those are the tough growing pains.”

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