Gophers Barely Get by Drake, Winning 68-67 behind Big Game by Murphy
December 11, 2017

Minnesota coach Rick Pitino entered the post-game press conference with a smile and jovial countenance after his team beat the Drake Bulldogs 68-67, but his first words were, “Obviously, it wasn’t very good.”

The Gophers shot only 30 percent from the field, trailed by as many as 8 points in the first half, allowed 6 three-pointers by the Bulldogs, and had the ball as time ran down but didn’t even get off a shot as the buzzer sounded when Drake leading 28-24.

Even though Pitino acknowledged, “I know we stunk,” he was irritated the booing his team received as it left the court at halftime. “It doesn’t help,” he said. “It’s counterproductive. . . . Unless you want us to lose.”

Pitino did call the first-half performance a “great, great lesson. If you left offense affect defense, you’re not going to play well.”

Jordan Murphy had 10 points and 7 rebounds in the first half, and he extended that into a total of 24 points and 18 rebounds, four of them on the offensive boards. His biggest rebound may have been with 1:43 left in the game with the Gophers ahead 64-62. After a Minnesota miss, Jordan fought off two Drake players to grab the ball and take it back to the basket.

At the other end of the court, Murphy and fellow-big-man Reggie Lynch blocked four Bulldogs shots in the final two minutes. Lynch had five blocks in the game, Murphy four, and the Gophers had a total of 10.

After dominating the first half, Drake extended its lead to 41-32 before the Gophers started their comeback, tying the game at 43 and again at 45-45. It wasn’t until 9:02 left in the game that the Gophers took their first lead, 50-47, on a three-pointer by Dupree McBrayer.

Minnesota held the lead the rest of the way and seemed in control after Murphy’s big offensive rebound and putback. Murphy made another basket for a 68-62 lead and combined with Lynch on a block at the other end. However, Michael Hurt missed the front end of a one-and-one, and the Bulldogs got a basket from Ore Arongundade, who came off the bench to score 15 points.

After the Gophers inbounded, Hurt had the ball stolen from him. Murphy blocked a shot but the rebound caromed the Graham Woodward, who fired a three-pointer at the buzzer to make the final score 68-67, a one-point win for the Gophers over a team they should have beaten by more.

Pitino said Drake was a late addition to their schedule and that Bulldogs coach Niko Medved—a former student manager and then assistant coach for Minnesota—assured Pitino that Drake wasn’t very good. Pitino said that after the game he told Medved, “You lied to me.”

Medved is in his first year at Drake, taking over a team that was 7-24. Medved spent the last four years coaching Furman. One of his assistants on the Bulldogs is Dave Thorson, the former coach at De La Salle High School in Minneapolis, winning nine state titles in his 23 years there.

For the Gophers, Amir Coffey scored 16 points, all in the second half, and Nate Mason had 12 points and 5 assists. The bench produced only four points on baskets by Gaston Diedhiou and Isaiah Washington. Hurt and Washington each had four rebounds as Minnesota outrebounded Drake in the game 42-33 with the Gophers getting 14 offensive rebounds.

The Gophers recovered from their cold first half by shooting 62.1 percent from the field in the second half.

For Drake, Woodward—a teammate of Lynch’s at Edina High School—had 14 points and De’Antae Murray 12. Led by Arongundade, the Bulldogs bench scored 29 points.

The one-point win is indicative of the recent struggles of the Gophers, who won their first seven games of the year but had lost three of their last four. Minnesota gets a 10-day break before returning to Williams Arena to play Oral Roberts December 21.

Gopher Holes: Murphy has had a double-double in all 12 games this season. This was the 20th time these teams have played one another but the first time in nearly 30 years. In 1988 in Des Moines, Drake beat the Gophers 66-52.