It took four years for Ben Johnson to earn his first top-25 win as the Gophers head coach. It took nine days for him to nab his second top-25 win as the Golden Gophers won their third straight conference game on Saturday afternoon, knocking off No. 15 Oregon 77-69.
Dawson Gracia was phenomenal in the win with 31 points in the win, making 13-of-19 field goal attempts in the game including 3-of-5 from three-point range. He also had six rebounds.
Parker Fox recorded a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Lu'Cye Patterson and Femi Odukale also finished with double-digit scoring efforts with 11 and 10 points respectively. Mike Mitchell Jr only had eight points in the win but contributed 10 assists, two rebounds, and two steals in the win.
The Gophers who once held an 18-point lead with 12 minutes to go in the first half, had to fend off the Ducks in the win. Despite the impressive early lead, the Ducks were able to nab the lead from the Gophers early in the second half while also tying up the score three additional times in the second stanza.
The Gophers got off to their best start of the season on Saturday, hitting six of their first eight attempts in the game including making at one point five straight attempts. Before Oregon could blink, the Gophers were out to a 15-5 lead and quickly grew that lead to 26-8 by the 12:41 mark of the first half.
After making 10 of their first 14 attempts, the Gophers' hot hand would dissipate, missing their next five shots. That cool streak allowed Oregon to narrow the 18-point lead down to seven points in just under five minutes of game action.
For the remainder of the first half, the two sides would go back and forth before heading into halftime with the Gophers leading 44-38.
Coming out of halftime, the Gophers missed their first three attempts while Oregon made their first three attempts, which when combined with the final three minutes of the first half, gave the Ducks at one point, seven straight made attempts from the floor.
Thanks to their hot hand coming out of the break, the Ducks were able to nab a 46-44 lead with 17:45 remaining in the game. The Gophers would handle the adversity well and quickly put together an 8-0 run to recapture the lead and find themselves up 52-46 with 15:19 remaining.
As previously mentioned, Oregon would not go down quietly and be able to tie the game up two more times in the second half including at 56-56 with 9:14 remaining. Much like after the opening eight minutes of action in the first half, the back half of the second half was a tug-of-war affair on the scoreboard.
The Gophers would look to grow their lead, but Oregon, looking to keep the game tight would continuously find ways to keep themselves in the game. Notably, the officiating in the game did supply Oregon with 21 total free throw attempts in the game including 15 during the second half. Credit to Oregon, the Ducks were stellar from the line and took advantage of those opportunities making 17-of-21 in the game and 13-of-15 across the second half.
With 1:33 remaining, Oregon guard Jackson Shelstad would complete a three-point play on a jumper inside the paint, which narrowed the Gophers lead down to just two points. However, the Ducks struggled from the field over the final 10 minutes of action as a whole and made just a pair of their last eight attempts in the game.
The Gophers, however, sensing their second top-25 win in less than two weeks would make each of their final four shots from the floor including an emphatic dunk from Dawson Gracia with just seven seconds remaining to give the game its final score of 77-69.
The Gophers will return to action on Tuesday as they look for their third top-25 of the season, facing No. 8 Michigan State at Breslin Events Center in East Lansing.
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