Jaylen Crocker-Johnson hit two key baskets in overtime and the Gophers men’s basketball overcame a poor free throw-shooting night to outlast Wisconsin-Green Bay 72-65 on Saturday at Williams Arena.
The Gophers, who made just 16 of 33 free throws in regulation, missed their first two free throws in OT as well before making four free throws in the final 26 seconds to seal the victory.
“Man, I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone from the free-throw line there, I’m not going to lie,” Gophers coach Niko Medved said with a laugh in his postgame news conference. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything like that. And these are guys who are good free-throw shooters. I don’t know if we got a little bit rattled there down the stretch.”
Cade Tyson scored 27 points to lead the Gophers (3-1), who were coming off an 83-60 loss at Missouri on Wednesday.
The Phoenix (1-4), who are coached by radio show host Doug Gottlieb and were coming off an 80-61 loss to St. Thomas on Thursday, scored five points in the final 14 seconds of regulation — including a layup with one second remaining — to send the game into OT.
Robert Vaihola’s basket with 2:16 left was the first points of the overtime and gave the Gophers a 63-61 lead. Marcus Hall tied it 63-63 with 1:58 remaining and was fouled on the play, but he missed the free throw.
Crocker-Johnson’s three with 1:35 left broke the tie and gave the Gophers the lead for good. After a Phoenix miss, Crocker-Johnson scored to give the Gophers a 68-63 lead with 47 seconds remaining.
After two missed free throws by the Phoenix, Crocker-Johnson grabbed the rebound, which led to the Gophers’ Isaac Asuma making two free throws to extend the Gophers lead to 70-63.
