The Minnesota Gophers men’s basketball team picked up their first Big Ten road win of the season with a 64-59 victory in Iowa Thursday night.
It was the third straight victory for the Gophers and their fourth win in their last five games.
The Gophers were fortunate to hold on. Minnesota struggled to close it out as they missed free throws, committed silly fouls and turned the ball over, allowing the Hawkeyes to get back into the game after they’d trailed by 11 with 3:44 remaining.
But with 27.3 seconds to go Andre Hollins drew a huge foul and sunk two big free throws to push the Gophers lead to five.
Hollins finished with 20 points to lead the way for the Gophers, while Nate Mason was also in double figures with 12.
The Gophers took an early lead in what was a low scoring first half as Minnesota led 23-19 at the break. After they padded their lead early in the second half, Iowa came fighting back to close the deficit.
Worse than the Tubby stare: #gophers pic.twitter.com/BCvuIvkr2s
— Darren Wolfson (@DWolfsonKSTP) February 13, 2015
Minnesota got it together and pushed the lead to 11 with less than four minutes to play, but had to hold on in the closing minutes.
Jarrod Uthoff led the Hawkeyes with 17 points, while Peter Jok chipped in 16.
The Gophers (16-9, 5-7) play at Indiana on Sunday.
