Sooners too much for Minnesota

A 1-2 record in the Great Alaska Shootout was the likely outcome for Minnesota heading into this weekend. That’s what they got, and they did do it the good way (beating Furman in the opening round) rather than the bad (beating DII Alaska-Anchorage in the consolation bracket). Still, one more victory would really have been nice. The Gophers came close against Alabama, but Saturday night against Oklahoma was a different story.

The game started out ok, with the Gopher defense playing tough and the Sooners being careless with the ball. Minnesota actually held leads of 17-13 and 24-23 deep into the opening half. Oklahoma finished it out on an 8-2 run though, and that was a sign of things to come.

Over a 12-minute stretch that spanned halftime, the Gophers had 7 turnovers and just 2 field goals. That drought allowed the Sooners to build a 39-27 lead early in the second half, and they never looked back. The lead grew as large as 58-35 before the Gophers staged a late rally to finish the game with a more respectable score of 67-54.

I had actually predicted an 11-point loss for Minnesota, so that margin didn’t surprise me, but the way it happened obviously did. The Gophers appeared to come out with strong defense and decent energy (considering the busy week they’d had), but their offense just never got going. They shot a woeful 35% from the field in the first half (0-4 from 3-point range), which made being within 31-26 pretty impressive. But the offensive woes continued in the second half, and Oklahoma heated up and shot 5 for 7 on threes. That was all she wrote.

Vincent Grier led Minnesota with 18 points in a solid offensive performance after struggling against Alabama. Jeff Hagen had 9 points but just 3 rebounds and 1 assist. Dan Coleman scored 8 points but struggled with 3 for 11 shooting from the field after being on fire in Friday night’s second half.

Going strictly by the box score, two bright spots would appear to be the play of Gopher newcomers J’son Stamper and Rico Tucker. J’son got 22 minutes of playing time and responded with 8 points and 10 rebounds against a solid Sooner frontcourt. He did commit 5 turnovers (probably a result of all the time he’s missed due to injury), but those are impressive numbers.

For Rico, I look past the dreadful 0 for 8 shooting (he had shot the ball well the previous two games) and focus on the 6 assists and 1 turnover in 27 minutes. That’s the first indication we’ve seen of Rico the point guard rather than Rico the scorer and is something I expect to see more of. His 3 steals are also nice.

Now the Gophers need to come back to The Barn with their heads up and use their somewhat painful Alaska education to knock off Florida State on national TV Tuesday night.

Here’s the box score.

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