Gophers Lose 67-66, Get Outrebounded 43-16

Just yesterday Coach Jim Molinari said in an interview that one of his main goals was to rebuild the home court advantage that the Gopher program used to take for granted. Saturday’s one point loss to Arkansas-Little Rock is probably not the first step in the rebuilding process that Molinari had in mind. And the UALR Trojans treated The Barn as if it was their own playground as they manhandled the boards and snuck out of the game with the 67-66 win.

Rebounding has been an issue all season long for the Gophers, but never has it been this bad. UALR outrebounded Minnesota 43-16, and for the second time this season (both times at The Barn) the opposing team had more offensive rebounds than the Gophers had rebounds total, as the Trojans had 18 offensive rebounds (the Gophers only had three) and they turned that in to 17 second chance points (the Gophers had four).

But despite the incredible variance on the glass, the Gophers still had chances in the games final minute to win. After trailing by six points with 2:26 to go in the game, Spencer Tollackson made a bucket and Lawrence McKenzie followed that up with a huge three-pointer to cut the Trojan lead to one point.

The Gophers grabbed the lead with 12 seconds remaining when McKenzie got a rare offensive rebound for Minnesota and was fouled on the shot. He hit both free throws to give the Gophers the 66-65 lead. But the Trojans’ Steve Monroe drove the length of the court and hit a running floater in the lane to take the lead with 4.3 seconds remaining. But back came the Gophers as Limar Wilson also drove the length of the floor, got a shot off but was fouled with .8 seconds remaining, but the junior guard missed both free throws and the Gophers came up a point short.

The Gophers did have a few bright spots on the offensive end. McKenzie finished a game-high 24 points, Tollackson added 21 points (on an impressive 9/12 from the floor) and Coleman chipped in with 17. But the stats that stand out would make Richard Coffey or Zach Puchtel cringe. The three Gopher big men (Tollackson, Coleman and Jonathan Williams) combined to play 85 minutes and managed just six rebounds.

But stats are relatively meaningless as the only numbers that truly matter are in the win/loss column. And unfortunately the loss drops the Gophers record to 4-7. Minnesota will look to “œrebound” on Tuesday night when it hosts Central Florida.