Gophers Mount St. Mary’s
November 21, 2011

Coming into the 2011-2012 season, the Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers of Emmitsburg, Maryland, played 10 games, all losses, against Big Ten opponents. Number 11 produced another loss, this one by a score of 85-76 to the Minnesota Gophers at Williams Arena.

Last year, the Mount stayed with Penn State until the end, finally losing on a tie-breaking 20-foot basket by Talor Battle with 1.3 seconds left. Against the Gophers, however, it was no contest from the beginning. Minnesota roared to leads of 11-0, 25-4 before finishing the first half with a 51-18 lead. Danny Thompson was solely responsible for the Mount St. Mary’s first 10 points, and the Mountaineer forward finished the game with 14 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 blocked shots.

“Clearly we did not handle the pressure at the beginning of the game and that got us off on the wrong foot,” said Mountaineer coach Robert Burke. “They beat us on the offensive glass as well, so that is where the game was won.” Minnesota outrebounded the Mount 36-25 and had 17 offensive rebounds.

The Mount outscored the Gophers 38-34 in the second half, although Minnesota did its damage in the first half, with 11 different players scoring points. Rodney Williams got all 12 of his points in the game in the first half, and he added another put-back dunk to his growing highlight reel. “Coaches were telling me I need to be more aggressive,” said Williams. “Tonight I just came out looking to be more aggressive from the jump. They didn’t box me out going to the offensive boards, so that’s where I got most of my points.” Williams added, “On defense, we had the intensity we were looking for.”

For the game, the Gophers has five different players in double figures, as coach Tubby Smith used his entire bench and spread the playing time. Elliott Eliason started at center in place of Ralph Sampson, who was out with an ankle injury. Eliason had 4 points, 4 rebounds, a blocked shot, and 2 steals. “As far as our execution tonight, I thought we were sharp and crisp. Our guys made better decisions with the ball and we got off to a good start,” said Smith. “We got on them early, got into our press, and that helps when you can score early and get into your press, score early and capitalize.”

The Gophers are now off to the Old Spice Classic in Orlando and will face DePaul on Thanksgiving. Minnesota returns home next week to play Virginia Tech in the Big Ten/Atlantic Coast Conference Challenge.

Gopher Holes: The Gophers beat the Mountaineers 87-62 during the 1995-96 season, although the result of that gave has been vacated. This was the first time the Gophers won by at least 25 points since beating Purdue 69-42 in the 2010 Big Ten tournament.

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