Had you told Minnesota faithful the Gophers would lose leading scorer Dre Hollins early in the first half to an ankle injury against the No. 9 team in the country, even the most loyal of fans probably wouldn’t have loved the Gophers chances of winning.
Fueled by big second halves from Deandre Mathieu and Austin Hollins, Minnesota made it appear as if they didn’t even need Dre, as they upset the No. 9 Wisconsin Badgers 81-68 Wednesday.
Mathieu scored 13 of his 18 points in the second half, and Austin picked up the scoring slack with Dre out as well, scoring all 11 of his points in the final half.
Austin delivered not only production, but a thunderous throwdown as well, which will serve as the highlight of the night, if not Minnesota’s season so far.
Mathieu’s 18 shared the team lead in scoring, while Maurice Walker delivered a huge night off the bench for head coach Richard Pitino, also putting up 18 to go with nine rebounds with starting center Elliot Eliason in foul trouble throughout.
The win means the Gophers exit a brutally tough stretch of basketball against four straight ranked opponents with a 2-2 record, with four games in a row against unranked teams coming up before a rematch with the Badgers.
The first of those four contests comes Sunday on the road against Nebraska, who upset Ohio State their last time out.
Second half underway. Thanks to our photographer Chris Mitchell, here's a photo of Mo Walker in the first half pic.twitter.com/pSMiCjD1N7
— Minnesota Men's Basketball (@GopherMBB) January 23, 2014
