The Gophers men’s basketball team opened up the season with a win over the University of Missouri-Kansas City Roos Tuesday night. Head coach Ben Johnson got his first win at the helm of the Maroon & Gold.
The Gophers had an impressive first half to the new “Ben Johnson era” with a mix of smart plays on both sides of the floor. The basketball experience in this new-look Gophers gave Minnesota an advantage over UMKC.
The second half was a different story as the defense started to tire out and fail to rotate as they did so successfully in the first half. Then, a switch was flipped, and the Gophers were re-energized behind the crowd.
“If you wanna be a good team, you wanna win games, you gotta find different ways to win. You gotta find ways to recapture the momentum, so hats off to our guys. They found a way to get it done in a big way,” Johnson said.
After the Roos cut the Gophers lead to just two points, Minnesota held them from scoring for just under six minutes while forcing three turnovers to lead the way to a 12-0 run. Minnesota was able to wipe away the dreadful two-thirds of the second half to hold on for an opening-night victory.
Over the final 7:42, the Gophers outscored the Roos 17-4 to make a close game into a blowout.
Sophomore Jamison Battle led the Gophers with 18 points, and senior Payton Willis, after going absent in the second half, grabbed five late points to bring his total to 13 to go along with an important assist late in the second half. Senior Eylijah Stephens was a big part of that run and also finished with 13 points.
“Everybody just stuck together, that was the main message in the huddle,” Stephens said. “So just to stay locked in, to stay together and we go on a run that started with defensive rebounding and we made some big shots.”
Johnson attributed that end-of-game run to an important drive by Willis, which he then kicked out to Stephens who hit his first three of the game, which was a very important one.
In the first half, the Gophers were making backdoor cuts, setting off-ball screens, and most importantly, swinging the ball. There wasn’t anyone trigger-happy as Willis and Battle both opened up their seasons with a team-leading eight-point first-half performance.
Battle and Stephens were the lone starters to play all 20 minutes of the first half, something not too-unfamiliar for Gophers fans to see.
Minnesota was calm with the ball on offense and turned the ball over just three times in the first half. On the shooting end, they got off to a hot start on the deep ball but finished at just 30% by the end of the half. As a team, the Gophers shot 42% from the field and took a 33-25 lead into the half.
There wasn’t much standing around on either end of the court. On the defensive end, the experience once again showed, and the Gophers were switching and rotating when need be.
The Roos were trying to get sets going, but Minnesota continued to give them trouble. The Gophers had three steals and forced five turnovers total while also blocking five shots. They held Kansas City to just 9-25 from the field.
One thing did go right, and that came inside the paint with Kansas City big man Josiah Allick. The 6-foot-8 forward gave Minnesota trouble. It was clear what the Roos wanted to do, and they did it early, getting Allick the ball inside.
Though Battle had the main assignment to cover Allick, there were times 6-foot-4, 185 pound senior Luke Loewe found himself on a switch covering the big man in the paint. Allick led the game in scoring with 21 points on 7-10 shooting.
“They just kept getting the ball inside, and the scout was obviously to hold [Allick], front him in the post when there was a guard on him or I was on him,” Battle said. They just kept hammering it inside and I think once they got to two, we kinda stepped up.”
Minnesota is back in action Friday against Western Kentucky in Asheville, North Carolina for the Asheville Championship.
