And let the foul game begin. Georgia State, with 1:17 left in the game has started fouling in hopes of catching the Gophers sleeping at the charity stripe. So far, the Gophers are 2-for-2. —— Well we’ve had some website issues but with 1:33 left in the game, Minnesota leads 54-47. Hoffarber has come off the bench and given the Gophers some offensive spark in the second half. Sampson has been playing better as well. —— This game is getting sloppy and its getting sloppy fast. Minnesota’s defense is subpar at best and Georgia State refuses to go away, scoring a couple of easy buckets to bring hte game to 40-33. Right now, there are two very tired teams on the floor and the effects of a three-game weekend are apparent. Tired legs, tired bodies and ever more increasingly tired minds are showing on both benches. But with 11 minutes still left in the game, we’ve got a lot of basketball left. —— Well the Gophers came out of the timeout firing and Al Nolen’s two free throws followed by a three ball from Travis Busch have the Gophers up by 11, 40-29. Georgia State trying to stay in the came has called a full timeout. —— Minnesota must have been too distracted with the Cloggers and not paid enough attention to Tubby at halftime. Minnesota’s lead has been cut to 6 at 35-29 at the 15:12 mark. The Gophers have yet to put a single point on the board. They’ve missed a couple of close range gimme shots and have looked sloppy on both sides of the ball so far. —— Halftime and Minnesota has a 35-23 lead. Georgia State’s Leonard Mendez hit a three pointer with 6 seconds left in the half and Minnesota failed to get the ball in bounds for a last second shot. Overall a pretty good half for Minnesota. Sampson must be an end-of-the-half kinda guy as he scored the final four points of the first half for the Gophers and almost earned a steal as well. Westbrook is leading Minnesota in points at the half with nine. Nolen is pulling his weight in the way of assists with four. Should be an interesting second half. Clogging for the halftime show. 18 women and one poor little boy. He’s getting his clog on nonetheless. Fairly amusing I guess…nah, maybe not.
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Timeout at 3:35, and Minnesota has built up an 11 point lead thanks in part to a six point run for Lawrence Westbrook. He completed a three point play at 5:49 and then drilled a three at 4:11 to put the Gophers up 29-18. Sampson is back out on the floor now so eye looks to be A-OK. —— Timeout at 7:46, Minnesota’s got a 20-14 lead. Sampson looks to have returned to the bench with his eye taped up. Iverson has himself a pretty good dunk on the night, earned on a Gophers breakaway at the 8:03 mark. —— Timeout at 10:22 as Sampson dropped a rebound and a scuffle for the ball followed. He got tangled up with a pair of Georgia State players and went face first into the floor, leaving with a cut above his eye. He’s been taken down to the locker room. It didn’t look too serious and I’d expect him to return. —— Timeout at 11:03 as Minnesota was putting together a nice little run. Score is 15-8. Defensively Minnesota is putting a lot of pressure on the ball and hasn’t given up an easy shot tonight. Ralph Sampson is out on the floor as has two points but still isn’t looking like he is entirely comfortable. He’s missed a pair of shot inside the paint tonight and the one drive he took to the basket was pretty unimpressive. It’s still early but it looks like he still has a ways to go. —— Timeout at 15:56, Minnesota leading 5-2. So far things haven’t been to eventful. The only thing that is really standing out, and standing out in a big way might i add, is Colton Iverson. He’s got himself a block and a couple of hard earned points so far and its obvious he’s very comfortable on the floor after just a few games. He’s aggressive and strong underneath the bucket on both sides of the ball. He is certainly taking advantage of Jonathon Williams’ absence on the floor. —— Bit of a change to tonight’s starting lineup from Minnesota. Senior Jamal Abu-Shamala gets the start over Blake Hoffarber. This isn’t completely surprising as Hoffarber has been less than stellar in the first two games of the weekend. The sophomore has scored just 11 points in two games. —— Final score from the Bowling Green-Concordia game: 82-61. T-minus 24 minutes to tip-off. ——
A long weekend for men’s basketball is coming to a close here this evening. Bowling Green is putting a pretty good beat down on Concordia St. Paul. WIth 1:57 left to go its 78-58. There will be a half hour warm-up period before the Minnesota-Georgia State tip. The Gophers look to be starting the same lineup they have had all weekend. Iverson, Nolen, Carter, Hoffarber and Westbrook. Westbrook and Nolen have been playmakers for Minnesota all weekend and Iverson really stepped up last night. We should definitely be looking out for someone else to step up for Minnesota tonight, especially in the offensive category. The Gophers are going to need more htan two scorers to compete in the Big Ten. We shall see…
