Abysmal foul shooting, bad fouls and other issues sink Gophers in crushing loss to Ohio State

There arguably have been worse losses in Ben Johnson’s tenure as Gophers coach than Monday’s against Ohio State, but the ending of the 89-88 double overtime debacle was one for the ages.

Fouls, free throws, probably fatigue as well. Those were only some of the issues contributing to Johnson’s team squandering what would have been its first Big Ten win this season.

The Gophers (8-7, 0-4 Big Ten) came away brokenhearted after battling the Buckeyes in two overtimes, but they’ll have to regroup quickly heading into Friday’s rivalry game at Wisconsin.

“I’d have to think about that,” Johnson said when asked if this was his toughest loss. “It’s a league game and it’s at home. League games are just so valuable. They’re so hard to win. So, so hard to win.”

Here are the four biggest things learned from the double OT loss to Ohio State:

Imagine if the Gophers were one of the best foul shooting teams in the Big Ten. How many more wins would they have this season? One? Two? Three?

That’s hard to say exactly, but Monday’s outcome most definitely would have turned out differently.

Mike Mitchell Jr. was shooting 90.9% this season (10-for-11) entering the night, but he went 2-for-6, including two backbreaking misses with the Gophers up 73-71 with six seconds left in the first overtime.

Dawson Garcia was shooting 79.6% this season, but he went 0-for-3 at the charity stripe in the second half. Two of his misses came with the score tied 62-62 with 1:43 to play in the second half.

There was blame to go around, though. Seven different players missed a free throw. Five of them clanked at least two foul shots. There’s the difference in a one-point game.

“It’s tough,” Johnson said. “Those guys put a lot of time into free throws. I’m obviously with them every day, and [see] the stuff we have them do outside of practice and in practice.”

Maybe the holiday break had something to do with it. During a four-game stretch before Christmas, Johnson’s team shot 79% on free throws (49-for-62), which included early December Big Ten losses to Michigan State and Indiana. Since returning from Christmas, the Gophers are shooting 50.7% at the line (34-for-67) in three games. Did they shoot enough in the time off? Hmm.

Betts fouled Ohio State’s John Mobley with four seconds left in the first overtime with his team leading 73-71. Everyone in the arena, including Betts, realized the error after the fact. But it led to another extra period once Mobley sank both shots.

No one play cost the Gophers the game. Betts was playing because senior starter Femi Odukale injured his ribs after falling out of bounds in the second half.

Earlier in the overtime, the Gophers fouled, leading 73-70 with 7.7 seconds remaining to avoid giving up the game-tying three-pointer. That was contrary to what Johnson did when Wichita State forced overtime with a last-second three in a 68-66 loss on Thanksgiving in Orlando.

You can’t excuse it but at least understand Betts’ confusion. A worse foul was when Garcia fouled out with five seconds to play in regulation trying to block a wide-open dunk by Devin Royal that tied it 62-62.

The Gophers had some battles with the Buckeyes in recent years. That was mainly because Garcia owned them. He was averaging 28 points in three meetings, including a career-high 36 points in Columbus last season.

Garcia’s recent struggles at the foul line are harder to figure out. He hit 25 of 27 free throws in a three-game span in November. He nailed 24 consecutive free throws in a five-game span in December. But Garcia is 6-for-16 on free throws in the past three games combined.

The brightest spot from Monday’s game was probably the performance of freshman Isaac Asuma, who had a career-high 18 points on 7-for-11 shooting, including 3-for-4 from three-point range.

Asuma seems to be emerging into one of the Gophers’ most reliable guards. He not only is arguably their best on-ball defender, but he also plays mostly mistake-free basketball. He had three assists and only one turnover in 40 minutes Monday.