The Minnesota Gophers were eliminated from the Big Ten Tournament with their 79-73 loss to Ohio State in Chicago Thursday night.
D’Angelo Russell scored 23 points and was too much for the Gophers to handle. In addition, Shannon Scott stepped up for Ohio State with a career-high 21 points.
Ohio State coach Thad Matta became the all-time winningest coach in program history with 298 wins at Ohio State, and 400 for his career with the victory.
The Gophers had a chance late as Andre Hollins got a clean look at a three-pointer that would have cut the Buckeye lead to two with just over 30-seconds to go, but Hollins’ shot was short and Ohio State collected the rebound.
Andre Hollins looks pretty upset with himself for that last foul. MN down 5 with 36.4 sec to go and Loving at the line for 2.
— Amelia Rayno (@AmeliaRayno) March 13, 2015
DeAndre Mathieu led Minnesota with 16 points, while Hollins finished with 13. Carlos Morris chipped in 12. Joey King wasn’t as hot on Thursday as he was the night before, when he knocked down six threes in the Gophers victory over Rutgers. King finished finished the Ohio State game with 10 points.
Minnesota won’t be in the NCAA Tournament, but still has an outside shot at the NIT, where they would be defending their title from last year.
I do believe that closes the book on the 2014-15 Gopher basketball team.
— Chris Long (@ChrisLongKSTP) March 13, 2015
The Gophers (18-15) will wait until Sunday evening to see if they qualify for the NIT Tournament.
