The Minnesota Gopher men battled Arkansas-Pine Bluff Wednesday night, pulling away from a 44-43 2nd half lead to win 72-56. And, let me stress this: They battled. There was a time, of course, when Arkansas-Pine Bluff would not have been a battle. But that was then and this is now. It was a battle and the Gophers battled.
The Gophers never trailed but the Golden Lions managed to tie it up at 3-3 and 16-16. Gopher leads felt insecure. Early leads of 6 points (9-3, 11-5, 15-9) were surrendered. A 34-21 lead late in the 1st half and 37-25 at the half was mostly surrendered as APB got within 44-43 at 13:52. But, the Gophers closed it out with a 28-13 advantage over the final 14 minutes.
In the 1st half, it was freshman guard Braeden Carrington who sparked the Gophers from that 16-16 tie. He hit 3 3s plus 2 FT over the following 5 minutes to give the Gophers a 29-19 lead. Jamison Battle scored the next 5 Gopher points and the Gophers led 36-21, but the Lions scored the final 4 points of the half to stay alive at 36-25.
The 2nd half started poorly for the Gophers as Pine Bluff used an 18-8 run to get within 44-43. The Lions guards Kylen Milton and Shaun Doss were able to get to the rim easily and repeatedly against the Gophers' man defense. The Gophers were switching at every opportunity, but it didn't matter who was guarding Milton, in particular. They got to the rim at will against any and all Gopher defenders. Milton scored 8 points and Doss 4 during the Lions' big 2nd half run.
It was at that point that Gopher coach Ben Johnson made the decision to go to a zone defense, and brought in Trey Thompson to play the right-wing defensive position. Thompson failed to score on the night, but coach Johnson seemed to feel that he was essential to this zone defense and he remained on the court most of the rest of the way. His +/- had to be pretty good. In any event, after making 8-of-15 FG to get within 44-43, Pine Bluff made just 5-of 22 FG against the Gophers' zone the rest of the way. Meanwhile, Battle made 3-of-4 FG down the stretch as the Gophers pulled away.
Still, there's no question that Pine Bluff exposed the Gophers' weaknesses. One was the ability (that is, the inability) to defend against penetration into the lane by the Lions' quick guards. On this particular night, the Gophers were able to use a zone defense to stop the bleeding. It is difficult to picture a zone defense as a solution in the Big 10, however. Pine Bluff responded by shooting 5-for-24 (21%) on 3-pointers. Who thinks that Big 10 opponents could not do a little bit better? Still, Pine Bluff scored just 3 points in the final 8 minutes. The zone worked.
Secondly, the Gophers' inside offensive game was woefully weak most of the way. They made 11-of-20 2-pointers. 55 percent ain't bad, but they only attempted 20! Battle and Carrington shot 16 3s and 6 2s. Pine Bluff shot 44 2s. Of course, the extra shots were partially the result of 14 Golden Lion offensive boards. But, it was also a matter of the Gophers' preference for shots out beyond the arc (27 of them), where they weren't being manhandled. It was the long bomb that saved the Gophers' bacon, as the 2 made 9-of-16 3s, the rest of the team 3-of-11.
Yet the Gophers stubbornly continued to try to get the ball inside and, well, that ended up working out, too. Overall, Dawson Garcia and Pharrel Payne managed 6 buckets on 11 shots, which sounds OK. But that's just one bucket every 7 minutes against an undersized opponent. But, Payne scored 5 quick points to give the Gophers a 52-45 cushion at 10:54. Garcia then scored 4 to make it 64-53 at 4:46. They scored 9 of their 19 points over those 7 or 8 minutes. The rest of the way they were often overpowered by the Lions small but aggressive defenders. Many of Garcia's best moments came at the high post, not on the low block. Payne is raw but his presence helps to free Garcia up in the high post and on the wing.
Carrington finished with 20 points in his best performance yet, while Battle battled back from a slow start to score 18. Garcia battled, too, against tough, physical defenders who denied him the ball for lengthy stretches of the game, and he ended up with 14 points, a team-high 7 rebounds, and 5 assists. Ta'lon Cooper scored just 7 but he was the glue that held the Gophers together at times, protecting the ball and getting team highs with 8 assists and 3 blocks. He's kind of a cross between Peyton Willis and Darryl Mitchell, stronger than he is quick, though he's not the 3-point shooting threat that Willis was. Payne played with strength and energy in his 12 minutes but the 2 of them did have 6 turnovers.
The game was much closer than the final score of 72-56 might suggest. It was, appropriately enough, a pair of 3s by Carrington at 7:11 and Battle at 5:53 that increased the Gopher lead from 56-53 to 62-53 that finally provided a sense of security. But, even then, who knew that Pine Bluff was done scoring?
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