Gophers Compete But Fall to Wisconsin Again 75-62

While the result was unfortunately another loss to Wisconsin, the game itself was quite different this time. While most Gopher fans probably entered The Barn with a hopeless attitude, for the first 30+ minutes just about all of them were cheering loudly and probably thinking the Gophers had a chance to pull a big-time upset. The Gophers led by a point 3 minutes into the second half and were within four with 7 minutes to play, but the Badgers managed to pull away down the stretch.

While the record doesn’t reflect it too much, this is a much better Gopher team than we saw a few weeks ago. They didn’t always play well in this one, but they played hard and they didn’t back down or give up. While they gave up some offensive boards early and allowed Wisconsin to get hot to start the second half, overall the Gophers held their own on the boards and did manage to hold the Badgers to 42% shooting from the field. There’s definitely still much room for improvement in both areas, but they were better.

Offensively, the Gophers hit 8 of 12 three-pointers (helped by a couple of desperation heaves by Kevin Payton), but they struggled with a lot of “œeasy” shots inside. There were numerous missed layups and putback attempts that could really have helped but some fear into the Badgers, but maybe the Gopher players were just trying too hard and feeling the pressure themselves.

Two stats separated the teams and led to the difference. Minnesota committed 16 turnovers to Wisconsin’s 7, and Wisconsin had 31 free throw attempts to Minnesota’s 18. I don’t fault the Gophers for the latter (they went pretty strong to the basket most of the night), but taking care of the ball has been a problem all season and was costly again in this one.

Lawrence McKenzie (coming off the bench again) led the way with 21 points and had a pretty strong offensive night. Spencer Tollackson also had a strong night finishing with 13 points and 6 rebounds in just 19 minutes. The Badgers had no answer for him, but their problem was solved when he fouled out early for the second game in a row (Spencer’s 5th foul was again very questionable, but he also again got himself into foul trouble by earlier committing a foolish reach-in ““ his 3rd foul in this game). Dan Coleman finished with 12 points and 6 rebounds but struggle shooting the ball around the basket and was just 4 for 16 from the field.

Things don’t get any easier this weekend when #2 Ohio State visits Williams Arena Sunday afternoon. Hopefully their competitiveness against #3 will give the Gophers some confidence against #2.

Here’s the box score.

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