The Gophers men’s basketball team unraveled in the second half against Rutgers on Wednesday.
Minnesota committed six turnovers across six minutes as the Scarlet Knights went on an 11-0 run to win 72-67 in a second-round Big Ten tournament game at United Center in Chicago.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe 14th-seeded Scarlet Knights (14-18) will play sixth-seed UCLA on Thursday night. The 11th-seeded Gophers (15-17) will wait to see if their postseason will continue with a lower-level national tournament.
The Gophers led 52-47 with nine minutes remaining; that’s when the turnovers were racked up and Rutgers took advantage. The U had 15 total turnovers to Rutgers’ 10.
“We haven’t really done that in a long time,” head coach Niko Medved said on KTLK-AM postgame show. “Obviously, you can’t let them score out of our offense. Fifteen turnovers, especially in a lower-possession game like this, you really don’t give yourself a chance. That has been really uncharacteristic.”
Rutgers guard Tariq Francis was a headache for Minnesota, scoring 29 points on 9 of 16 shooting and 6 of 7 from the line.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe Gophers led 31-29 at the half, but had trouble with Francis finding opening in Minnesota’s 2-3 zone defense. Northwestern’s Nick Martinelli was able to find similar pockets in the regular season finale on Saturday, but Minnesota was able to come away with a win.
In the first half Wednesday, Francis had a game-high 16 points, including 4 of 5 from 3-point range. Grayson Grove led the U with 10 points, making 5 of 7 shots.
The Gophers blew out Rutgers 80-61 at Williams Arena on Feb. 21. Cade Tyson led the U with 27 points at The Barn. On Wednesday, Tyson led the U with 24 points.
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