Dawson Garcia, Elijah Hawkins lead Minnesota past Butler 73-72
The Minnesota Golden Gophers are moving on in the National Invitational Tournament. On Tuesday evening, the Golden Gophers led by a 25-point scoring effort from junior forward Dawson Garcia and an 11-point, 15-assist night from Elijah Hawkins defeated the NIT's fourth seeded Butler Bulldogs 73-72.
Garcia was especially big in the second half of action with 17 points including 11 points in the final 11 minutes of play. Pharrel Payne, Cam Christie, and Parker Fox all finished with double-digit scoring efforts as well in the win.
The Golden Gophers got off to a quick start on Tuesday evening and had a hot shooting hand for almost the entirety of the first half.
Pharrell Payne would open up the scoring with a basket in the paint on the Gophers first possession of the game, before a Dawson Garcia free throw after a foul on Jahmyl Telfort made it a 3-0 game. The Gophers would hit eight of their first 15 shots on the evening, jumping out to a 19-11 lead with 10:25 left in the first half. The eight point lead was their largest of the half.
On the other end of the court, Butler started off strong as well, making five of their first eight attempts in the first six minutes of the contest but would go through a three minute stretch in which they failed to make a bucket, missing six straight attempts.
Their struggles would be short lived, however, as a Jahmyl Telfort three-pointer with 10:03 to go, started a strong run for the Bulldogs over the next nine minutes of action, as they made eight of 10 attempts including one stretch of six straight made shots that turned a 23-18 Minnesota lead into a 36-34 lead for the Bulldogs.
The Golden Gophers struggled on the glass at times as well in the first half, being outrebounded 16-11 by the Bulldogs, Butler was also able to earn four offensive rebounds in the first 20 minutes of play. Thanks to the strong run for Butler to end the first half, the Golden Gophers would enter halftime trailing 38-36.
Coming out of the break, Minnesota would miss their first attempts but would then make five of their next shots, allowing them to maintain a small lead over the Golden Gophers. The Golden Gophers would briefly retake the lead at the 11:02 mark on a Dawson Garcia layup but the Bulldogs would tie the game back up a minute and half later before reclaiming the lead shortly afterwards
Despite a few stretches of shooting struggles including at one point missing five straight attempts, the Bulldogs would maintain a small lead throughout the rest of the game. The Golden Gophers shooting 41.7% from the field in the second half would, however, not allow Butler's lead to grow beyond five in the final 10 minutes of action.
The back-and-forth affair would set up a fantastic finish. After a Jahlyn Telfort jumper put the Bulldogs up three with 39 seconds to go, Elijah Hawkins would find a running Dawson Garcia towards the basket. Garcia fought through a pair of Bulldog defenders, making the challenging layup to cut Butler's lead down to a one at 79-69.
On the ensuing possession as Butler looked to move the ball towards the basket, Parker Fox would perfectly read a pass out of the hands of Butler guard DJ Davis, before lobbing it towards Elijah Hawkins who had to chase down the ball before it went out of bounds.
Hawkins would feed the ball to a driving Cam Christie who had his attempt blocked but Hawkins would be there to recover the loose ball before being fouled, sending him to the line.
Hawkins would hit both of his free throws to give the Golden Gophers a 73-72 lead with five seconds remaining.
Looking for a game winner, the Bulldogs looked to get the ball up the court in a hurry, hoping to call a timeout with time remaining, but wasted 3.2 seconds, taking a timeout with just 1.8 left to go.
Jahmyl Telfort would get a look from the corner on their in-bounds play, a valiant attempt that would bounce off the rim, before falling to the ground, giving the Gophers the 73-72 win.
With the win, the Golden Gophers will now wait to see who their second round opponent will be. They will await the winner of Indiana State vs SMU who are set to face off on Wednesday evening at 6:00 p.m. CT.
If the Golden Gophers can knock off their next opponent and then win a quarterfinal matchup, they would find themselves returning to Hinkle Fieldhouse in a few weeks for the NIT Semifinals. But first, they'll have to take care of business later this week on Saturday or Sunday against Indiana State or SMU.
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