Gopher Basketball
Early on it looked like the Gardner-Webb game all over again. The Chanticleers came out on fire and hit a barrage of three-pointers, accounting for its first 15 points. The Gophers were slow to respond and Coastal Carolina opened up a surprising 26-16 lead after Pele Paelay nailed a three-pointer, scoring three of his game high 23 points.
But the Gophers immediately responded as Adam Boone, Jamal Abu-Shamala and Dan Coleman hit three straight three-pointers and quickly cut the Coastal Carolina lead to one point. The offensive and defensive pressure didn’t stop there though as Minnesota culminated a 22-2 run to close out the half with a monstrous dunk by Brandon Smith as time expired, taking a 38-28 Gopher lead.
The Gophers received a big boost in the second half as Rico Tucker played extended minutes in his first regular season game of the year. The athletic guard from San Diego had 10 points and a career-high six steals. One of his buckets brought the crowd to its feet as he threw down a big time dunk in the open floor.
Tucker’s play, combined with a balanced scoring attack from the Gopher front line (Coleman had 14 points, Spencer Tollackson and J’Son Stamper each had 13 points) to secure the 18-point Gopher win.
This game represented the first full game that Minnesota had to play without its two leading scorers and arguably its two most dynamic weapons in Maurice Hargrow and Vincent Grier. Hargrow’s return appears to be more imminent and could come Monday night at Arizona State; Grier’s return is still a few weeks away, but he removed his hard cast yesterday, an important step in the healing process.
The Gophers will take a 3-2 record into Monday night’s game at Arizona State. But more importantly it will take a team that is slowly adding to its depth, and quite possibly a group gaining confidence and learning to win without its two stars.