Gophers Pull Away from Jackrabbits with Second-half Surge
November 14, 2011

South Dakota State stayed with Minnesota for nearly three-quarters of the game, but the Gophers established their dominance with a 12-point run midway through the second half to beat the Jackrabbits 71-55 at Williams Arena.

Minnesota was again plagued by poor free-throw shooting and were outrebounded by the smaller Jackrabbits, who trailed by only 32-30 at halftime. Freshman guard Taévaunn Prince came off the South Dakota State bench to pull in 8 rebounds in the first half as the Jackrabbits dominated the boards 23-13 (and 37-33 for the game). The Gophers shot better from the field than the line in the first half and the game, making 54 percent of its field-goal attempts and only 38 percent of its free throws in the first half, finishing the game with a field goal percentage of .574 and free-throw percentage of .524 (the latter figure identical to South Dakota State as both teams finished with game with only 11 of 21 free throws made).

Eleven turnovers in the first half proved costly to the Jackrabbits, and head coach Scott Nagy said, “The second half was not the problem. It was the first half. I f you going to be a championship team, which we want to be, you can’t turn over the ball like we did. That is usually a strength of ours, and I don’t know why it wasn’t tonight.

“I don’t know what the key was to be honest, but when you’re up by 10 rebounds at half and you are down two points that is a problem. We should have been up 10 and no one should be happy about that. The only way [Minnesota] was scoring in the first half was off of our knuckleheaded turnovers, and you just can’t do that.”

South Dakota State held a 21-18 lead when the Gophers got a break. Ralph Sampson’s attempted alley-oop pass to Trevor Mbawke was so far off-target that it hit the backboard—and banked in for a field goal. Sampson then picked up a loose ball and dunked to put Minnesota ahead 22-21. Reserve Chip Armelin scored nine points in the first half, including a pair of field goals that broke a tie and then extended the lead to 32-28 before Prince hit a pair of free throws with .3 seconds left to bring the Jackrabbits back to within 2.

Junior Nate Wolters, who played at St. Cloud Tech High School, scored 10 points and had 4 assists in the first half. He got the Jackrabbits going in the second half with a three-point basket for a 33-32 lead. After a basket by Brayden Carlson to up the lead to 3, followed by a Mbawke layup for the Gophers, Wolters drove and scored to make the score 37-34. Rodney Williams hit a three-pointer to tie the game, but a minute later Wolters answered with a three to put South Dakota State ahead 40-37. Wolters finished the game with 20 points and 5 rebounds to go with 6 of the only 8 assists the Jackrabbits had.

The score was tied at 45 when freshman Andre Ingram, who played high-school ball for Minnesota Transitions, put the Gophers ahead with a with just over 12 minutes to go. After a media time out, Minnesota reeled off another 10 points and were never challenged after that.

“It was good to get the win tonight,” said Minnesota coach Tubby Smith. “I thought our guys came ready to play, but we were playing a tough, hard-nosed team and they always give us a tough game.

“Coach Nagy’s team is always well prepared. Nate Wolters schooled us pretty good, especially our young point guard Andre Hollins. He really had a tough time. So did Austin [Hollins]. Nobody could guard him.”

Andre Hollins had three fouls in the first half and was replaced by Julian Welch in the second half. Hollins didn’t get back until 9:48 remained in the game; he quickly picked up his fourth foul and was back on the bench within a minute.

“We feel we have a deep bench, and the way you utilize it is you have to play people,” said Smith. “You have to extend that defense, this is the best job we’ve done that so far.”

Nagy said of the strong run the Gophers made against his team, Nagy said, “They came out with some pressure and we didn’t handle it well. . . . I thought we had guys play nervous and you can’t come into a place like Minnesota and play nervous.”

Mbawke, playing with a sore thumb and wrist, led the Gophers with 17 points and 10 rebounds, tallying the majority in both categories in the second half. “We were not getting the long rebounds and their guards were just coming in, and Coach really challenged us at half time ‘cause we are a team that really prides ourselves on getting the rebounds. And I think we did a better time at the second half.”

Center Ralph Sampson, with 10 points, was the only other Minnesota player who scored in double-figures. Armelin finished with 9 points, all in the first half, and Maverick Ahanmisi had 8, all in the second half. “I feel like I really needed to step up,” said Ahanmisi. “Everyone was getting in foul trouble, so we had to get in there and pick up the intensity so I tried to help the team do that. I really pride myself in that.”

For the Mavericks, Prince had 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Gopher Holes: The Gophers and Jackrabbits played each other for the seventh straight season. Minnesota has never lost in its 16 games against South Dakota State.