Gophers Get Solid 67-54 Victory Over Oral Roberts

They still have a ways to go, but the Gophers ended the year with a solid 40-minute performance over a pretty talented Oral Roberts team Saturday afternoon at The Barn. Moe Hargrow led the way with 23 points, and Minnesota’s defense held the Golden Eagles to just 33% shooting from the field.

Oral Roberts may be just 5-7 on the season, but they were a solid team. They had a lot of size up front, a very good power forward in Caleb Green (who finished with 24 points and 15 rebounds), and good athleticism. They could have used another shooter or two (especially with Ken Tutt going 2 for 15 from the field), but this was still a solid win.

Minnesota’s defense was active and fairly tight all game. They had 17 steals, forced 24 turnovers, kept Oral Roberts off the free throw line, and didn’t give up too many open jumpers. They did have some breakdowns in rotation when trying to double-team Green, but for the most part there was good help all game. There were also very few transition opportunities for the Eagles.

Offensively, the Gophers at times looked like a team that hadn’t played in 8 days. They missed some bunnies (Spencer Tollackson in particular just had one of those days where nothing will drop), and they overpassed the ball on several fast breaks. But they mainly took good shots and moved the ball well, so it was a decent offensive performance.

What wasn’t decent was the rebounding. We knew Oral Roberts was good on the boards, and having J’son Stamper on the bench didn’t help, but the Gophers didn’t do as good of a job on the boards as I would have liked in getting outrebounded 46-35. Some of the problems on the defensive glass were a result of having to give up box-out position in order to double team, but there just wasn’t the intensity in the paint that I’d like to see.

Moe had 5 steals and 4 assists to go with his team-high point total. Vincent Grier finished with 16 points, 7 rebounds, 7 steals, and 3 assists. Dan Coleman played strong down the stretch to end with 15 points and 7 boards. Adam Boone had 7 assists and 4 steals in a quiet offensive game, and Spencer finished with 8 points and 10 rebounds.

So that ends the year and the nonconference schedule. One week from now, we’ll hopefully have a completely healthy team that’s a little bit sharper and ready to get off to a strong start in Big Ten play.

Here’s the box score.

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