For the first time in nearly four years, the Minnesota Golden Gophers have won a game over a top-25 opponent.
Entering their matchup against No. 20 Michigan with an 0-6 record in conference play, Ben Johnson's program found a way to breakthrough on Thursday night, picking up their first conference win of the season thanks to a Dawson Garcia overtime buzzer beater from the logo.
Garcia led all scorers in the game with 27 points, shooting 10-of-23 from the floor including 2-of-7 from three-point range. He also had 12 rebounds and four assists in the win. Lu'cye Patterson and Mike Mitchell put together two of their best performances of the season as well with 22 and 20 points respectively, Patterson was especially efficient, shooting 8-of-13 from the floor.
The Gophers in the win shot 45.2% from the floor, identical to Michigan's shooting percentage. Despite struggling from three-point range (9-of-29) and making only 9-of-13 free throw attempts compared to Michigan's 14-of-20 from the line and 50% three-point shooting effort, the Gophers were able to find a way to win Thursday night's game thanks to 13 Michigan turnovers resulting in 13 points and 15 offensive rebounds resulting in 15-second chance points.
From the jump on Thursday, the Gophers like they have in much of their Big Ten conference games, got off to a quality start and was going toe-to-toe with the high-powered Wolverines. Michigan coming into the matchup red-hot would nab the early lead but the Gophers would stay with the Wolverines for most of the first half.
Through the first 13 minutes of action, the Wolverines lead would never be more than five points. However, reminiscent of their recent loss to the Wisconsin Badgers in Madison, Michigan would begin to find momentum as the first half neared its end, using a 10-1 run in the final three minutes to grow their lead to as large as 11 points.
Heading into halftime, the Wolverines led 40-31. Coming out of the break, Michigan would immediately grow their lead to 11 points before the Gophers began to scrap back. After Minnesota narrowed the deficit to just four points, Michigan would regrow that lead to 10 points with 12:50 left to play.
In danger of a potential seventh straight loss to start conference play, the Golden Gophers would play dig deep and go on a 10-0 run in over just two minutes of gametime action. The run included seven straight points from Lu'cye Patterson thanks to a pair of free throws, a three-pointer, and a mid-range jumper.
Michigan would quickly regain the lead over the Gophers, growing their advantage to as much as six in the final minutes but Ben Johnson's Gophers put together their best second-half effort of the season, continuously fighting back. The two sides would exchange the lead several times in the final five minutes before heading to overtime.
In overtime, the back-and-forth action would remain. While the Gophers never were trailing in overtime, Michigan was able to tie it twice including with seven seconds left. After the game-tying layup from Michigan's Dustin Wolf, Lu'Cye Patterson would bring it up the court before dropping it off to Dawson Garcia who drained a 40-foot three-pointer to win the game at the buzzer.
With the win over No. 20 Michigan, Minnesota improves to 9-9 on the season and 1-6 in conference play. The Gophers will be back in action next Tuesday when they travel to Iowa City to face the Iowa Hawkeyes.
============================
- Talk about it INSIDE GOPHER NATION.
- Follow us on Twitter: @MinnesotaRivals, @RivalsDylanCC
- SUBSCRIBE to Gophers Nation
