Gophers Again Come Up a Few Minutes Short at Indiana

In what has become a common pattern recently, the Gophers hung close with Indiana for much of the game Wednesday night in Bloomington but weren’t able to stay in it for a full 40 minutes. Minnesota was within 2 with 9 minutes remaining, but the Hoosiers then pulled away for a comfortable 71-59 victory.

The Gopher offense has definitely been improved in recent weeks, and with a little bit better shooting it would have been good enough to win this game, too. Even the Gopher defense was probably good enough to win. Unfortunately, Minnesota’s rebounding definitely was not. Indiana grabbed 14 offensive rebounds on the night and routinely got two or three chances to score before Minnesota could finally take the ball to the other end of the court. As a result, the Hoosiers had 14 more shot attempts in the game, which was basically the difference.

Lawrence McKenzie and Dan Coleman led the Gophers with 20 points apiece. McKenzie played a very tough second half after being held in check in the first. He got to the free throw line 10 times as a result of taking the ball strong to the basket on numerous occasions (something he’s really improved on recently, which is good, because the Gophers are not good at freeing him up for jumpers with screens). Coleman had his typical steady game, shooting 8 for 14 from the field and grabbing a game-high 6 rebounds.

Lawrence Westbrook got the first start of his career and scored 8 points in a career-high 35 minutes. Brandon Smith scored 7 points and played well in his 10 minutes of action. Spencer Tollackson had a quiet night with 4 points and 3 rebounds in 32 minutes.

Saturday brings the final home game of the season, when the Michigan Wolverines come to town.

Here’s the box score.

Talk about the game on our Gopher Basketball message board.