Gophers Race Past Iowa 95-89
February 25, 2014
Hot shooting from the field for the first three-fourths of the game and accuracy from the free-throw line in the final two minutes propelled the Minnesota Gophers to a 95-89 win over No. 20/19 Iowa before a capacity crowd of 14,625 at Williams Arena.
The Gophers fell behind 32-21 midway through the first half, but a 30-9 run put them up by 10 points before Iowa’s Devyn Marble scored the final 6 points of the half, including a buzzer-beating three-pointer, to pull the Hawkeyes within 51-47.
The Gophers shot 69 percent from the field in the first half, including 9 of 11 from beyond the arc. Austin Hollins made all six of his field goal attempts—four of them three-pointers—and had 18 points. Freshman Charles Buggs came off the bench to score 11 points on 4 for 5 shooting in the half, including all three of his three-point attempts. The play of Hollins and Buggs, helping to fill in for injured Oto Osenieks, offset the early foul trouble encountered by big-man Elliott Eliason and his replacement, Mo Walker.
“We’ve been waiting,” said Minnesota coach Richard Pitino of Buggs. “He can do some things that make you go ‘wow’ and he showed that tonight. He hasn't played all year and then he comes in and hits three 3’s—that’s him.”
Iowa stole the ball on Minnesota’s opening possession of the second half and converted a fast break on a dead-eye bounce pass from Mike Gesell to Aaron White for a lay up. However, the Gophers responded with three straight field goals, raising their shooting percentage for the game at that point to 72 percent (21 of 29). The Hawkeyes never caught up, and part of the reason was the shutdown of Marble, who made 7 of 11 from the field, including 4 of 6 three-pointers, in the first half when he scored 19 points.
Marble made only one of four shots in the second half and was mediocre at the line, hitting only three of five free throws. Minnesota built a 80-67 lead with 8:23 to play but then hit a drought and didn’t score from the field the rest of the game. DeAndre Mathieu missed the front end of a one-and-one, and the Hawkeyes pulled to within four. Given another chance with just over three minutes left, Mathieu broke the dry spell with a pair of free throws to give Minnesota an 82-76 lead.
Marble made one of two free throws and then put back a miss from Gesell, was fouled, and converted to make the score 82-80 for the Gophers. Another pair of free throws by Mathieu opened it up a bit, and Andre Hollins made it a five-point margin when he hit the second of two from free throws. After that, the Gophers didn’t missed from the line. Mo Walker had four free throws, and Andre Hollins, Malik Smith, and Austin Hollins each made two.
Austin Hollins had a career-high 27 points in the game, connecting on 8 of 10 from the field and 7 of 7 from the free-throw line. Mathieu finished with 19 points, Andre Hollins with 14, and Charles Buggs with 13.
Despite his second-half troubles, which included 3 turnovers, Marble led the Hawkeyes with 24 points to go with 6 assists and 4 steals. White played a strong game all-around, scoring 21 points and grabbing 9 rebounds while Josh Oglesby made 4 three-pointers in the second half and had 16 points in the game.
Gopher Holes: The Gophers hold a 97-85 advantage against the Hawkeyes in the series that dates back to March 1, 1902, including 8 of the last 12 matchups. The win was Minnesota's third this season against a team ranked among the Top 25. The Gophers have also defeated No. 11/9 Ohio State January 16 and No. 9/8 Wisconsin January 22. All three wins have come at home.