Minnesota 75, Lafayette 50
Minnesota extended its winning streak to eight straight games with a 75-50 victory over visiting Lafayette on Saturday night, in the first meeting between the two schools, at Minnesota's Williams Arena.
The Gophers, ranked No. 13, improved to 12-1 and won for the eighth straight time since an 89-71 setback to Duke on Nov. 22.
Lafayette fell to 5-9, and the Leopards had quite a bit of history going against them. Minnesota hadn't lost to a Patriot League team since a 24-18 loss to Navy on Dec. 27, 1924.
Minnesota took early control, leading 37-22 at halftime on 14-of-29 shooting from the field. Lafayette held two leads, 2-0 on a basket by Joey Ptasinski in the opening minute and 6-4 on Tony Johnson's jumper with 16:02 left in the half.
From then on, it was all Gophers, who outscored Lafayette 33-16 the rest of the half, punctuated by a 14-3 run.
With 7:31 left, the lead was up to 67-37 after a pair of free throws by Oto Osenieks.
Joe Coleman scored 12 points and Osenieks had 10 to lead 11 Gophers in scoring.
Dan Trist led Lafayette with 14, Seth Hinrichs added 11 and Ptasinski had 10.
