Gophers survive scare vs. Furman

We've seen it over and over this season in the Big Ten's various nonconference slates.

A guarantee-game opponent marches into a power conference arena and refuses to acknowledge its role — instead walking away with the check and the victory.

One by one the upsets have struck down more than half of a league expected to be among the nation's elite before the start of the season. Down went Nebraska. Michigan. Indiana. Northwestern. Michigan State. Purdue.

Heading into Christmas, 10-2 Minnesota will not be on the list of the embarrassed, but after squeaking out an 86-76 win over Furman that felt much closer than that, the Gophers never have been so close.

"We definitely needed this," said freshman Nate Mason, a sentiment that was echoed around the locker room after Monday night's game at Williams Arena. "Going into Christmas break, we needed someone to test us, and it showed the character that we have to come out of here with a win."

In the second-to-last nonconference game of the season, the Gophers fell apart in a second half marked by their worst defensive performance so far, nearly wasting a season-best game by Joey King (19 points, three rebounds) and another outstanding performance from Mason.

Instead, DeAndre Mathieu — who struggled offensively in the first half but finished with 16 points, seven assists, five steals and five turnovers — hit a pair of layups down the stretch, Mason nailed three three-pointers in the final 6:19 and Minnesota held off becoming another statistic of the downtrodden Big Ten.

Minnesota led 40-33 at the break after cruising ahead by as many as 16 points in the first half. In the second, the Gophers tumbled further, enabling Furman — which hit 12 three-pointers and shot 63 percent from the field in the second half — to get into a stunning groove offensively.

With 7:54 to play, Geoff Beans (14 points) drilled a three-pointer to give Furman (2-8) its first lead of the game, 61-60. As Beans lifted three fingers on either hand in the air, the Paladins bench exploded with hope only hours after Gardner-Webb knocked off Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind.

"It's kind of an epidemic right now in college basketball," Gophers coach Richard Pitino said of all the upsets. "Teams are losing to these other teams, and we now understand.

"We were blowing everybody out and we were like, 'We're exempt from this, we can't lose to anybody.' It can happen."

David and Goliath took turns throwing punches, and the Gophers, unable to get a stop, fell helpless to the back-and-forth game until the very end. Stephen Croone had a game-high 25 points. Four Furman players finished with 13 points or more. The Paladins were knocking down shots at the end of the clock and then taking advantage of a stretched Minnesota team off the bounce.

• Gophers senior Andre Hollins played 25 minutes and went 3-for-7 from the field after getting into foul trouble while battling turf toe on his left foot. Hollins didn't practice at all this weekend.