With a head coach on the hot seat and a season potentially ending Wednesday night, the Gophers men's basketball team played with a nothing-to-lose mentality.
Gophers hold off Northwestern 51-46 in Big Ten tournament, win first game away from home this season
The Gophers started hot, and finished hotter - on a 12-0 run - to eliminate the Wildcats. Minnesota advances to play Ohio State on Thursday.
March 11, 2021 at 5:37AM
That approach was good enough to give the Gophers the edge for the first 35 minutes against Northwestern, but they had blown big leads before, most recently against the Wildcats.
History didn't repeat itself.
Richard Pitino could have been coaching his last game with the Gophers, but they survived a second-half surge from the Wildcats in a 51-46 win Wednesday in the Big Ten tournament opening round at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Minnesota snapped a seven-game losing streak.
"It's March, win or go home," said Pitino, whose team advanced to face No. 5 seed Ohio State in Thursday's second round. "You don't want it to end."
The 13th-seeded Gophers (14-14), who won their first game away from home this season, were outscored 15-3 and faced a seven-point second-half deficit with just under four minutes left before ending the game on a 12-0 run.
It was time to put together a comeback or face an early exit — and they didn't want to lose.
"We believe we can go on a run and get us back on track where we were in the beginning of the season," freshman Jamal Mashburn Jr. said.
Tre' Williams, who led the Gophers with 14 points, nailed a three-pointer to get the late rally started. Marcus Carr had another dreadful night shooting, but his six straight clutch points gave Minnesota a 49-46 lead with just under a minute left.
Carr's steal with 25 seconds remaining was another timely play. That was followed by one of two free throws by Brandon Johnson to provide enough cushion for the victory.
Carr, who had six assists and six turnovers and shot 3-for-10 from the field, scored eight of his 10 points in the final five minutes. Mashburn and Williams picked up the scoring slack in the backcourt with 25 points combined.
Late in the second half, Carr apologized to his teammates for his letting his struggles carry over from a 1-for-13 shooting performance in a regular-season-ending loss to Rutgers.
"I let the guys know I hadn't been playing my best for throughout these first 36 minutes," Carr said. "But it's crunch time, and I got them. They let me know they trust me and believe in me."
The Wildcats (9-15), who had ended the regular season with three straight wins, trailed 16-2 to start the game and 27-20 at halftime after shooting 26%.
In their first meeting, the Gophers were blitzed by Northwestern to start the second half, losing the lead and falling 67-59 on Feb. 25 at Williams Arena.
Pitino's players were the aggressors in the first half Wednesday. They were beating their opponent on the boards. They were playing with intensity defensively. They were getting to the foul line.
Momentum shifted midway through the second half. The Gophers got sloppy with the ball. They were fouling. They missed free throws. Inconsistency that had led to so many blown leads during a late-season collapse surfaced again.
After playing like the better team for most of the night, the Gophers suddenly looked like the squad that had finished 0-10 on the road in the regular season.
Minnesota's 17th turnover led to a reverse layup from Miller Kopp as Northwestern cut the deficit to four points with 11 minutes left. Kopp later scored off his own missed shot to give Northwestern its first lead, 40-38. Robbie Beran's three-pointer made it 46-39 with 4:15 to play.
The Gophers, though, held the Wildcats scoreless the rest of the way and limited them to 31% shooting on the night.
It was arguably the Gophers' ugliest win of the season, but it was a win. Mounting losses have made Pitino's future uncertain, but his players didn't want Wednesday to be their last time on the court together.
"We hear all the negativity about our team," Mashburn said. "We're just trying to go on a run. The main thing is we stayed positive. Everything was positive today."
The Star Tribune did not travel for this game. This article was written using the television broadcast and video interviews before and/or after the game.
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