Minnesota Falls to Northwestern in Wire-to-Wire Loss, 75-63

Following a 69-60 loss to Penn State, Minnesota looked to rebound Tuesday against Northwestern. As Penn State did on Saturday, Northwestern entered Tuesday fighting for their Big Ten Tournament chances and had lost 10 of their last 14 games.

Based on Tuesday night's performance, you never would've guessed that the Wildcats were struggling or that they were without their top player Brooks Barnhizer who was lost earlier this month with a season-ending injury.

In the game, the Gophers would come out flat on both sides of the court, with Northwestern taking a 10-0 lead in less than three minutes of game action. The Wildcats' 10-0 start, fueled by three quick Minnesota turnovers, set the tone early, and before the Gophers were able to even get their second shot attempt up in the game, it was already a double-digit deficit. One that they would never be able to fully climb out of.

While the Gophers offensively were able to recover in the first half, and would at one point tie the game with 7:04 remaining, they would never take the lead in the matchup. They would also only be tied with the Wildcats in the game for a total of 37 seconds which includes the first 18 seconds of the game after the opening tip.

Northwestern would shoot 50% in the first half, making 14-of-28 attempts including 7-of-12 from three-point range. Their hot shooting was enough to stay ahead of the Gophers and take a 36-31 heading into halftime.

Coming out of the break, Northwestern would open up on a 7-2 run that grew their lead back to double-digits. The Gophers would answer with a 6-0 run of their own and were able to keep the game within 10 points for the majority of the first 10 minutes of the second half. However, after a Nick Martinelli layup with 10:56 left in the game, put the Wildcats back up 10, the Gophers' chances of staging a comeback quickly faded with the lead growing to as much as 17 points with 7:05 remaining.

Minnesota would be able to cut the lead down to as few as nine points with 1:11 remaining but Northwestern would ensure no miracle was going to occur on Tuesday at Williams Arena, finishing the game on a 5-2 run over the last 62 seconds, to hand the Gophers a 75-63 loss.

In the loss for the Gophers, Dawson Garcia led Minnesota with 26 points on 9-of-20 shot attempts including 3-of-7 from deep. He also made all five free throw attempts while recording nine rebounds.

Frank Mitchell was the only other Gopher to finish with double-digits in the points category with 10. Mitchell was 4-for-5 in the game from the field. Notably, Mike Mitchell Jr. had his worst performance shooting-wise of the season with zero points, missing all six of his attempts on Tuesday.

For Northwestern, forward Nick Martinelli was unguardable with 29 points on 11-of-20 shooting while recording five rebounds. He was the only Wildcat to finish with double-digit points.

It was a sloppy game for the Gophers who had 13 turnovers in the game leading to 12 points off turnovers for Northwestern, the Gophers had just four points off eight Northwestern turnovers.

Next up

With the loss, Minnesota's record drops to 14-14 overall this season and 6-11 in conference play. The Gophers with three games remaining are only a game up on the Penn State Nittany Lions and a 1.5-game up on the Washington Huskies who currently sit in the 17th and 18th spots in the Big Ten.

The Gophers now will have to finish the season off with a tough stretch against the Nebraska Cornhuskers, Wisconsin Badgers, and Rutgers Scarlet Knights beginning on Saturday in Lincoln.

Notably, Penn State also has a tough trio of games remaining with matchups at Indiana, home against Maryland, and at Wisconsin while Washington will have a pair of home games against Indiana and Oregon as well as a road matchup against USC.

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