More of the Same from Gopher Men and Women

The Gopher men and women both won for the 3rd time in this young season last night, but that's where the similarities end.

The women beat a BCS school on a neutral court, while the men struggled to beat a mid-major (Bucknell, as it happens) at home.

Gopher women 68 Arkansas 60

The women stormed away from a 42-all tie against Arkansas. A 15-4 run made it 57-46 at 4:50. Still the Razorbacks got within 59-55 at 3:10 but buckets by Katie Loberg and Leah Cotton and 2 FT by Kiara Buford iced it.

Pam Borton played a 9-deep rotation:

Post-Loberg 29 minutes, Micaella Riche 11

PF- Kellogg 28 Jackie Voigt 12

SF- Sari Noga 22 Buford 9 and Br. Mastey 9

PG-Banham 31 Cotton 9

SD- Buford 23 Cotton 17

Banham led the way with 15 points and 4 assists, leading one poster over on Short Street to observe that she is making it hard for Gopher fans to have modest expectations of her. Buford added 13, and Loberg 12 with 7 boards. Kellogg scored 8 and had 6 steals.

The Gophers narrowly won the possession game as each team had 13 offensive boards. Arkansas had 24 turnovers and the Gophers 14 steals, while Minnesota turned the ball over 18 times. The Gophers also won the shooting contest, but narrowly, 44 percent from the field to 40 and 79-59 from the FT line. But Minnesota made just 1-of-7 3s, while Arkansas made 8-of-24 to stay close.

Minnesota men 70 Bucknell 58

This one was a lot closer than it looks. Minnesota trailed 53-48 at 5:53 and looked to be in a world of hurt. Bucknell was on a 9-4 run on 3s by Cameron Ayers (2 of them) and Bryan Cohen. The Gophers, meanwhile, had missed 8-of-14 2nd half FT.

But Trevor Mbakwe hit a pair of throws at 4:30, then Austin Hollins tied it up with a 3 at 4:55. Trevor hit another pair of throws, and Austin 3 throws at 2:35 and suddenly it was 58-53 Minnesota. Welch hit a 2+1, Mbakwe a 2, and Trevor, Welch and Andre Hollins made 7-of-8 throws the rest of the way.

It was a 22-5 run to the final buzzer, as impressive as the Gophers had been unimpressive to that point.

Tubby used 12 players, approximately as follows.

C- Sampson 26 minutes Eliason 9 Mbakwe 5

PF- Mbakwe 22 Oseniaks 10 Ingram 4 Rodney 4

SF- Rodney 25 Coleman 11 Armelin 4

PG- Andre 13 Welch 19 Ahanmisi 8

SG- Austin 24 Andre 8 Armelin 8

The Gophers won the possession game with 15 offensive boards to Bucknell's 6, and 10 turnovers to Bucknell's 14. The Gophers narrowly lost the shooting contest, however, hitting 40 percent from the field to Bucknell's 34. But the Bison made up for that by hitting 44 percent (7-of-18) 3s, while the Gophers made 20 percent (3-of-15) of theirs.

From the FT line, it was also another mediocre performance by the Gophers at 23-of-35 (66 percent)though they redeemed themselves with 15-of-17 down the stretch. Bucknell made 83 percent of its FT (19-of-23).

The Gophers scored 30 points in the paint to 15 for the Bison, and won on 2nd chance points 21-2. (We were 7-of-30 outside of the paint.)

No surprise, Mbakwe led the Gophers with 17 points and 10 boards for the 20th double-double of his career. Austin Hollins scored 13 points. Sampson scored just 8 but added 9 boards and 6 assists.

The starting 5 shot 15-of 33 (46 percent) while the bench shot just 7-of-22 (32 percent), 0-for-4 on 3s.