Early in Saturday afternoon's game between the Minnesota Golden Gophers and USC Trojans in Los Angeles, it appeared that Ben Johnson's Golden Gophers were en route to a second straight loss and their fourth in their last five games.

The Gophers in the opening 11 minutes of the contest found themselves trailing 24-10 after a 14-2 run from USC. The Gophers offensively started slow, making just five of their first 16 shot attempts.

Even after the Gophers began to find a groove offensively, it still was not the first half that many would have envisioned. Dawson Gracia had just three points, Mike Mitchell Jr had a pair of points. Their leading scorer in the opening 20 minutes was Isaac Asuma who had 10 points on 3-of-5 shooting including 2-of-3 from three-point range.

After trailing 24-10 with just under nine minutes remaining, the Gophers would begin to claw their way back into the game, but USC would continuously have answers for Minnesota. Every time the Gophers tried to cut the deficit to single digits, the Trojans would answer by growing their lead again, and again.

Nonetheless, by the time halftime rolled around, the Gophers were able to cut that once 14-point lead for USC down to just nine.

While the first half belonged to Isaac Asuma for the Gophers, it would be the LuCye Patterson show in the second half as the senior guard had 19 points in the second half. Patterson was 4-for-8 from the floor including 2-of-3 from three-point range but was also sent to the line 11 times in the final 20 minutes and was able to convert on nine of those 11 attempts.

Coming out of halftime, Minnesota would start off with a 6-2 run that appeared to put them right back into the contest but just like the first half, USC would answer back swiftly with a 5-0 run of their own to grow their lead to 45-35 with 15:45 remaining in the game.

The Gophers and Trojans would once again go back and forth for the most part in the first 10 minutes of the second half. No matter what the Gophers did, they were unable to break through on the Trojans.

That all began to change at the 10:17 mark as Lu"Cye Patterson would have five straight points on a layup and three-pointer which kickstarted a much-needed 11-0 run by the Gophers.

While it was sparked by Patterson, four different Gophers scored during the run as Isaac Asuma added a layup while Frank Mitchell and Femi Odukale both hit a pair of jumpers as well. The much-needed extended run by the Gophers would turn a six-point deficit into a three-point lead.

But after having their resilience tested over the first 30 minutes of action, the Gophers would need to be resilient once again as USC would have much of the success over the final six minutes of action following the Gophers' 11-0 run.

After leading 55-52 with 6:47 remaining, USC would outscore the Gophers 14-6 over the next six minutes of action, six of those 14 points coming via free-throw attempts from the Trojans.

As the game entered the final 90 seconds, the Gophers finding themselves trailing 66-61 would get a second-chance layup from Frank Mitchell after a Lu'Cye Patterson miss to make it a one-possession game.

Usc would look to go back up by two scores but both Desmond Clauded and Rashaun Agee would miss shots under the basket before Frank Mitchell grabbed a clutch rebound to settle the game down.

With 24 seconds remaining, Dawson Garcia driving to the basket could have his shot blocked by the Trojans' Rshaun Agee but Frank Mitchell would once again come up huge for the Gophers with a second second-chance bucket in the final 90 seconds, this time cutting the lead to just 66-65 for USC.

Following a timeout, USC would look to get the ball in-bounded on the Gophers side of the court and would successfully get the ball to the Gophers side but Dawson Gacia and Lu'Cye Patterson would create a turnover on the Trojans' guard Clar Slajchert.

Dawson Garcia would pick up the loose ball before getting it to Femi Odukale who would find an open Lu'Cye Patterson near midcourt. Patterson would drive towards the basket before being fouled while going up for a layup by Trojans' guard Cbibuzo Agbo.. Patterson would knock down both free throw attempts, giving the Gophers a 67-66 lead with 13 seconds remaining.

The Gophers would force another turnover on USC's final possession of the game before Lu'Cye Patterson was sent to the line one more time, growing the Minnesota lead to 69-66 with just three seconds remaining. The Trojans' sloppy play in the final 30 seconds would be capped off with guard Wesl Yates slipping while trying to get upcourt allowing the clock to expire without getting off a potential game-winning shot attempt.

While Patterson was the star of the game with 25 points, the Gophers also got a huge contribution from Frank Mitchell throughout the contest with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Mitchell, a Canisius transfer had arguably the two plays of the game thanks to his pair of second-chance buckets.

With the win, the Gophers improve to 13-12 on the season and 5-9 in Big Ten play.

The Gophers will be back in action on Tuesday, once again in Los Angeles as they take on the UCLA Bruins at Pauley Pavilion in Westwood. The Bruins are currently sitting fifth in the Big Ten with a 19-7 overall record and 10-5 in conference play.

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