For the second time this season the Minnesota men’s basketball team lost after being badly outplayed in the second half. On Nov. 16, the Gophers (4-2) blew a 21-point lead with under 12 minutes to play and lost to Missouri. On Sunday night, the Gophers trailed by one point with 13 minutes remaining only to get blown out 76-58 by San Francisco (5-2).
Cam Christie’s 3-pointer trimmed the deficit to 47-46 with 13:07 to play, and that’s when the Dons went on a huge run, increasing the lead to 17 points at 70-53 with 2:58 to play.
If you do the math, that’s a 23-7 run in 10 minutes, 9 seconds to put the game on ice. The Dons led by as many as 20 points before Christie hit a shot to make it an 18-point game.
Minnesota never led in the game.
San Francisco is no slouch. The Dons were picked to finish third in the talented West Coast Conference behind Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s.
Dawson Garcia led the Gophers with 19 points on 7-of-15 shooting. The rest of the starting lineup – Elijah Hawkins, Braeden Carrington, Josh Ola-Joseph and Isiah Ihnen – combined to shoot 3-for-9 and totaled 8 points. Ihnen and Carrington didn’t score.
Pharrel Payne came off the bench and finished with 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting. Christie scored 7 points and Mike Mitchell finished with 9 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists.
Minnesota plays New Orleans on Thursday and then opens the Big Ten schedule at Ohio State on Sunday, Dec. 3.
