Gophers Fall to Northwestern, Finish 5-11

It’s been one of those seasons. Just six days ago the Gophers held on to slim hope for an at-large NCAA Tournament bid. The team figured with two ranked opponents and Northwestern in a six day stretch could present a great opportunity to send a message to the Selection Committee. Instead, Minnesota lost three close games, the most recent of which was the 57-53 loss Saturday night at Northwestern in the regular season finale. The loss is an amazing five in a row to the Wildcats for the Gophers as the team falls to 14-13 and 5-11 in Big Ten play.

It was a pretty sloppy and slow first half until the final seconds when Adam Boone drilled a three-pointer cutting the Wildcat halftime lead to 31-24, who were led by Craig Moore who hit three first half three-pointers. The Gophers had nine first half turnovers and struggled to get any flow on the offensive end.

Northwestern came out strong in the second half and opened up the lead to 10 points, but Jamal Abu Shamala caught fire for the Gophers and scored 11 points during a 21-11 run as Minnesota tied the game at 51-51 with 3:27 remaining in the game. After the two teams traded hoops, a big goaltend call against J’son Stamper gave Northwestern a 55-53 lead.

The Gophers had a chance to tie or take the lead in the games final seconds, but Dan Coleman missed a three-pointer with 5.5 seconds remaining and two Tim Doyle free throws put the game away giving the Wildcats the four point win.

Abu Shamala came off the bench and led the Gophers with 15 points and was a perfect 4/4 from behind the arc. Both Vincent Grier and Spencer Tollackson had 10 points, and Grier added seven rebounds.

The loss is the third in a row for the Gophers and the fifth in a row to Northwestern. After putting five wins in seven games, the Gophers find themselves in 10th place in the Big Ten heading into next week’s Big Ten Tournament.