After trailing the Purdue Boilermakers just 28-27 at halftime, the Minnesota Golden Gophers were outscored 53-34 in the final 20 minutes and dropped their third-straight conference game to start conference play on Thursday.

The loss drops the Gophers record to 8-6 on the season and 0-3 in conference play.

In the losing effort, Dawson Garcia led the Gophers with 20 points while Lu'Cye Patterson had 14 points. No other Gopher finished with a double-digit scoring effort. Mike Mitchell who has been an offensive dynamo this season when healthy, scored just four points while shooting 2-of-10 from the field and 0-for-6 from three-point range.

The Gophers as a team shot 48.1% from the field but struggled from three-point range and at the free throw line shooting 23.5% and 43.8% respectively.

For the first 25 minutes of the contest, the Gophers did a quality job of staying with the Boilermakers, after trailing by one at halftime, they found themselves tied at 35-35 at the 15:45 mark of the second half.

After tying the game, the Boilermakers would, however, begin to find their stride offensively with a 7-0 run. The Gophers would look to counter the run and were able to get the lead back down to four points with 11:12 remaining but that would be the closest the Gophers would get the remainder of the evening.

Over a three-minute span starting at the 10:543 mark, Purdue would go on a 16-3 that would put any doubt of a potential Boilermakers victory away. The Gophers would manage to stop the bleeding for a few minutes before Purdue used a 9-0 run over the final 1:40 en route to an 81-61 over the Gophers.

With their third straight loss to start conference play, the Gophers' schedule won't get much easier going forward. Over the rest of the month, each of the Gophers' remaining opponents ranks inside the KenPom top 50 including Ohio State next Monday. The Buckeyes are currently the No., 28 team according to KenPom.

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