Gophers Thump Rutgers 89-80
January 17, 2015

The University of Minnesota’s men’s basketball program took a step toward finishing the season with a .500 record by defeating the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, 89-80, on January 17 at Williams Arena.

The Gophers’ record is now 12-7 with a dozen games remaining, all in conference play, plus the Big Ten Tournament. By winning five more games, Minnesota will have finished with 17 victories, and, allowing for a likely first-round loss in the tournament. Whether or not a 17-15 record is good enough for the NIT Tournament is up to the NCAA to decide. The Gophers, are, after all defending NIT champs.

Minnesota had the misfortune to lose its first five conference games, thus placing themselves in purgatory for post-season play. Rutgers popped up on the schedule at the opportune time. Through the years, Minnesota had faced the Scarlet Knights twice before and won both times. Ironically, the first meeting as in the 1973 NIT Tournament when a loaded lineup of Jim Brewer, Ron Behagen, Clyde Turner, Bobby Nix, and Dave Winfield defeated Rutgers before being upset by Alabama.

But now Rutgers is in the Big Ten, trying to put early-season losses to St. Peter’s and St. Francis behind them. The Gophers could not have gotten off to a better start when a pair of Maurice Walker free throws staked Minnesota to a 12-2 lead. It was 27-18 after a Carlos Morris layup basket, but the Gophers repeated a familiar pattern, and it was 29-29 after a basket by Rutgers’ Kadeem Jack. Fortunately for Minnesota, guard Andre Hollins was off to a strong start with 17 points, and the Gophers managed a 42-37 halftime lead.

“Andre was awesome,” said Gopher coach Richard Pitino after the game. “Today he was confident shooting the ball. He’s easy to coach. On defense, he always guards bigger players and does it well.” Hollins would finish with 31 points.

The second half would see Minnesota maintaining leads of from six to 10 points. Rutgers stayed in the game due to the scoring of Jack and Myles Mack, out of New York City and New Jersey, respectively. The “Mack and Jack Show” would combine for 45 points.

A critical juncture in the game came with 8:58 showing on the scoreboard clock. Bakary Konate had just scored his only basket of the game to increase the lead to 68-58. This is the time where good teams nail the coffin shut, and bad teams falter and let the opponent back in. For a while it looked like a Rutgers run. An easy layup basket by Greg Lewis brought the Knights to within 70-65 with seven minutes remaining, but baskets by Joey King and DeAndre Mathieu pushed the lead to 74-65, and Rutgers was cooked. A Hollins basket made it 82-70, and all serious threats by the opponent were overcome.

After the game, Rutgers coach Eddie Jordan chose diplomacy when describing his first experience with the elevated floor at Williams Arena. “We were like actors on a stage,” he said, indicating that his players feared falling off and getting injured. Otherwise, he blamed the loss on his team’s 19 turnovers.

“Give Minnesota credit,” Jordan said. “They played lock-down defense.”

“Three or four times,” said Pitino, “we were building leads, and Rutgers would throw a punch—they kept coming back.”

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