Gopher Men and Women Return Home 6-1

The Gopher men and women won tough, hard-fought wins vs. BCS opponents today to go 2-1 down south, and now they return home with a respectable 6-1 record.

Minnesota men 66 Stanford 63

Tubby Smith, fresh off his turkey of the year award from the ever-charming Patrick Reusse, found this week that 1) his men can't compete with Duke, but 2) they can win when Andre Hollins scores 41 points, and 3) when he doesn't.

Hollins followed the 3rd highest individual effort in school history with an 8 point, 1-for-8 performance. But with the chips down and 0:00.4 left on the clock, Dre drained 3 FT to break a 63-all tie.

Minnesota trailed most of the 1st half, including 28-22 at 7:00, but a Trevor Mbakwe lay-up at 0:49 tied it up at 32. A 13-5 run to start the 2nd half (23-9 since that 28-22 deficit) made it 45-37 Gophers. But Stanford quickly tied it at 47 at 9:46. Neither team led by more than 4 the rest of the way and there were 4 ties T 56, 58, 61 and 63.

The Gophers out-shot Stanford 44-36 percent, but Stanford won the possession game with 3 more offensive boards and 5 fewer turnovers. Trevor Mbakwe had the best game of his current comeback from injury and legal troubles with 19 points and 12 boards, including 8 of Minnesota's last 12 points. Rodney Williams added 12 points and Joe Coleman 11, but Minnesota made hard work of it with just 7 assists on 19 buckets. Stanford had 14 for 21. Each team had just 12 points in the paint.

Minnesota women 59 Missouri 54

The women trailed Mizzou most of the way, including 7-0 and 28-23 at the half. Minnesota finally caught up at 32-all at 13:56 on a pair of Banham FT and they took their 1st lead at 36-34 on a (guess who) Banham fast break layup. Still, Missouri fought back to lead 51-47 at 4:22.

But Kayla Hirt scored 5 buckets down the stretch--that's right Kayla Hirt, 5 buckets in 4 minutes--the 5th for a 57-54 lead at 0:50.

Minnesota shot 50 percent, Missouri 36, but the Mizzou made 9 3-pointers, the Gophers none, zero, zilch, nada.

Banham scored 20 with 6 assists, Hirt scored 14. And, along with Hirt, Shane Mullaney also continued her emergence. playing 25 minutes, scoring 7 points on 3-of-4 shooting with 4 assists. Leah Cotton, with 5 minutes and no points, lost most of her minutes to Mullaney.