There was not too much mystery going into Friday night’s matchup between Minnesota and North Carolina A&T. The Aggies brought a small backline to town that had given up inside points and rebounds all season. They were expected to be sitting ducks for the Gophers’ big men, Jordan Murphy and Daniel Oturu, and they were as they pulled away for an 86-67 win.
The pair went for 30 points and 16 rebounds and 20 points and 11 rebounds respectively. Minnesota scored 56 points in the paint and outrebounded their opponent 49-30
Just as the inside game has been a strength all year long, perimeter shooting has gone in droughts at times, and Friday night was no exception. They were 4 for 20 from 3-point territory and just 14 of 23 from the foul line for 60.9 percent.
Minnesota went to the half with a 41-33 lead, but the shooting was more woeful early on that it was in the second half. They made just of 7 treys and 8 of 14 free throws in the first twenty minutes.
That could be attributed to the rust from a nine day layoff. Minnesota came in as a 22.5 point favorite, but fell behind early 18-8 almost eight minutes into the game, and then eventually stretched it out to 25-15 with 8:15 left in the first half.
From there, the Gophers went on a 16-0 run. Murphy and Gabe Kalscheur scored on two straight fast break layups. Murphy then scored four straight points then followed a Kalscheur 3-pointer to bring Minnesota all the way back to take a 28-25 lead. Oturu then capped off the run with three straight points to stretch the lead to six.
The Aggies trimmed the lead to 35-33 with less than two minutes left, but Minnesota answered with six straight points to take a 41-33 lead to the locker room. Murphy scored four in a row and Isaiah Washington scored at the buzzer.
The Gophers got the lead early in the second half up to twelve, but A&T kept the gap at nine three minutes in. Murphy and Oturu took over by combining to score the next ten points. Amir Coffey then hit a 3-pointer to stretch the lead to 54-40 with 14:42 remaining.
The Aggies then made a run of their own in the next four minutes to cut the score to 58-51. The two teams went back and forth until the 6:44 mark with the Gophers still holding on to a single digit lead, 68-60.
At that point, a culmination of Minnesota’s battering of the A&T zone which quite often ended up with much smaller players guarding the big men, as well as the Gophers’ excellent ball movement took a toll.
Washington fed Dupree McBrayer for a 3-pointer. Then the score sheet was very balanced as Murphy, Oturu. Kalscheur, and McBrayer all got into the act as Minnesota closed out the 19-point win.
For the game as we wrote earlier, Murphy led the team in both points and rebounds with 30 and 16. Oturu followed with 20 and 11. The two combined with an incredibly impressive 20 of 27 shooting performance. Murphy was 11 for 15 and Oturu was 9 for 12. Tonight’s performance also gave Oturu his third straight double-double.
McBrayer had 13 points, but he struggled from the field. He was 5 for 14 overall and 1 for 8 from 3-point territory. Kalscheur also struggled. He had 10 points but was 3 for 11 and 2 of 8. Coffey had 7 points, followed by Michael Hurt, Matz Stockman, and Isaiah Washington each had 2. Brock Stull and Jarvis Omersa each played and did not score.
Washington was 1 for 5 from the field, but for the second time in a row, he had a monster game at the point guard position. He had 10 assists and 3 turnovers in 25 minutes of play. That gives him 23 assists and just 3 turnovers in the last two games against North Florida and North Carolina A&T.
Offensively, Minnesota was 34 for 74 for 45.9 percent. They were only 4 of 20 shooting 3-pointer. That meant they were 30 of 54 inside the arc for 55.6 percent. They also piled up 23 foul shots, making 14 for 60.9 percent.
Not only did the Gophers dominate with low post scoring, but they out-rebounded A&T 49-30. There were two interesting rebounding stats from the game. The Aggies only had three more boards than the combination of Murphy and Oturu. They also only had one more defensive rebound (23) than Minnesota had offensive rebounds (22).
The Gophers also had 24 assists on 34 buckets. That is an impressive number, but it could have been greater. They missed several open shots via the pass, especially from 3-point territory.
Defensively, the Aggies were 43.9 percent from the field against them and 33.3 percent from deep. They also got to the line 17 times. The Gopher defenders did a nice job pressuring the ball and getting into the passing lanes. They forced 15 turnovers against only 12 assists.
Notes: With tonight’s win, Richard Pitino reached 100 wins as Minnesota Head Coach. He is 100-80 at the helm. His overall record including his stint at Florida International is 118-94.
Eric Curry did not play in tonight’s game. In the postgame press conference, Pitino was asked about if he expects Curry to play in the next game.
“I don’t know why he wouldn’t play, but I’m not a doctor. I’m not a trainer. I think it’s important he continues to progress with the contact portion of practice and non-contact.”
Minnesota will be off until December 30, when they host Mount St. Mary’s at 2:00 P.M.
