Gophers Get Crushed by Salukis; Face Montana Sunday

Friday’s game against Southern Illinois figured to be tougher than Thursday’s opener against Marist, and it certainly was. A three-pointer at the buzzer gave the Salukis a 28-21 halftime lead, and from there they cruised to a 69-53 victory that wasn’t as close as the final margin indicates.

Once again, the Gophers’ lack of offense basically gave them no chance to win in this one. Southern Illinois does deserve credit for having an outstanding defense ““ probably the toughest defense the Gophers will face all season. Minnesota had a hard time getting dribble penetration, finding open shots outside, or getting anything inside. But the Gopher offense deserves as much blame as the Saluki defense deserves credit. A couple of telling statistics: Minnesota trailed by 7 at halftime despite Southern Illinois shooting just 31% from the field; and with 8 minutes remaining in the game, Minnesota had scored just 29 points (nearly half of Minnesota’s points came in the final 8 minutes after the outcome was long since decided.

The biggest (maybe only?) bright spot of the game was the play of Brandon Smith. Brandon scored a career-high 14 points and is starting to look much more comfortable on the floor. Freshman Lawrence Westbrook scored 9 points and showed an ability to get to the basket, but he also showed a tendency to force things way too much. Lawrence McKenzie scored 7 points but was pretty much contained by the Saluki defense.

Up next is the 7th-place game of the Old Spice Classic against Montana. The game will be televised on ESPNU.

Here’s the box score.

Talk about the game on our Gopher Basketball message board.