Gopher Basketball
The Gophers came out fired up and ready to play Ohio State today to a large crowd of over 13,000 at The Barn. They really put their best foot forward for this nationally televised game on CBS, and if you only saw the first 14 minutes of the game, you would have thought the teams were evenly matched. With 6:26 left in the 1st half, the Gophers were down 26-24 to The Ohio State University. Led by Lawrence McKenzie on offense, he had a record-breaking day. McKenzie not only broke the Minnesota season record for most three’s in a season, but he set a personal best with 10 assists”¦along with those 22 points he scored. On the other end of the court, Bryce Webster had a breakout game. His stats say that he had 8 boards to go along with his 2 points and 4 assists, but that does not tell the true story of how well he did. He began the game by winning the tip-off going head to head with freshman phenom, Greg Oden. He defensively stuck with him fearlessly, and really contained Oden in the 1st half.
The rest of the game was what many expected while going up against the soon-to-be, top team in the nation. Even with Oden sitting out the last 7 minutes of the half, the Buckeyes went up 43-31 going into halftime. Ohio State is not a one man team, as a matter of fact, Oden’s replacement, Othello Hunter, proved he could fill his shoes quite well.
OSU led the entire 2nd half, going on an 18-1 run that put them up 24 points. Turnovers, rebounds, and steals proved to be problematic areas for the Gopher again, and really lead the their loss. Freshman, Lawrence Westbook and Damian Johnson proved to be the bright spots. Westbook tied his career high 11 points in only 19 minutes of play. One would think he would be rusty, after not seeing the floor in almost a month, but he came out poised, confident, and ready to contribute. Johnson has been playing on and off and is mainly know for his length, and ability to defend players; but today, he showed his ability to sink 3 pointers, he went 2-2 from the arc in his 9 minutes of play. Jamal Abu-Shamala found his shot today as well. He quietly added on 14 points and was 4-6 from three-point range.
If there’s anything Gopher fans should be excited about is the future. The underclassmen really look to have potential, and are beginning to realize this. They just need to gain some more experience and confidence, and build on what we saw today.
Here’s the box score.
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