COLUMBUS, OHIO - When it comes to teams vying for the NCAA basketball tournament, there are some things that separate the pretenders from the contenders.
Road wins usually are at the top of the list.
Entering Thursday at Ohio State, the Gophers men's basketball team had a goose egg in the column on its résumé under true road wins, but Marcus Carr's three-pointer with 3.3 seconds left gave his team its first road victory this season in a 62-59 win in front of a stunned announced crowd of 13,234 at Value City Arena.
Carr, who finished with 21 points and seven rebounds, led the Gophers to their first victory in Columbus since the 2004-05 season. That was also the last time the Gophers swept the Buckeyes.
"It felt good to finally put it all together," said Carr, who scored a career-best 35 points in the 84-71 victory Dec. 15 against Ohio State at Williams Arena. "We've been tested on the road a lot. We just hadn't been able to finish it down the stretch. We got a chance to do that [Thursday]."
The 6-2 sophomore guard from Toronto crossed over one defender and nailed the biggest shot of his career over C.J. Walker for the lead. The Buckeyes, who have lost six of their past seven, were in disarray on the ensuing inbounds pass that sailed out of bounds.
Once the final buzzer sounded, the Gophers (11-8, 5-4 Big Ten) celebrated at midcourt. They had their first true road win after starting 0-6, including last weekend's 64-56 loss at Rutgers.
"They were pretty excited," Gophers coach Richard Pitino said. "We're right there with an opportunity to go back to the NCAA tournament three out of four years, which is great. Still a long season to go, but we knew we had to break through on the road."