The Minnesota men’s basketball team went 1-1 after games against St. Francis Brooklyn on Friday and DePaul on Monday.
Freshman Frenzy Friday
On Friday, Gophers basketball joined the litany of successful collegiate contests at Minnesota after beating St. Francis Brooklyn 72-54. Four Gophers scored double-digit points, three of them freshmen.
The game started with St. Francis Brooklyn running a full-court press, putting the Gophers on their toes. With the help of forwards Pharrel Payne and Joshua Ola-Joseph, the Gophers offset their constant pressure and attacked the paint.
Payne used his 6-foot-9 frame to dominate underneath the hoop. His and his teammates’ presence forced St. Francis to a FG% of 41. He went 3-for-3 from the field, pulled down four rebounds and found Ola-Joseph, who led the team in points for the first half, off a backdoor cut for a highlight play.
By halftime, Minnesota led 37-28.
Freshman guard Jaden Henley and recent transfer Dawson Garcia initiated the second half with four quick points each. Head coach Ben Johnson recognized Henley had the hot hand and gave him the green light for the rest of the game.
“You could look at the Big Ten with the amount of freshmen that we’re playing,” Johnson said after the game. “But it’s an opportunity for other guys to get reps, to maximize those reps.”
Henley finished with a team-high of 16 points; a quarter of those points came from free throws.
In likeness to the football team, Minnesota’s defense provided stability to their lead throughout the final minutes. They eliminated St. Francis’s long ball (25% from three-point range) and out-rebounded them by 10 points.
All in all, it was the young core’s relentless energy that contributed the most to the team’s 18-point win.
The Monday blues
Whether it was the snow or DePaul’s defense, Minnesota was cold on Monday. The Gophers shot 33% from the field and 25% from three in their 53-69 loss to the Blue Devils.
Both teams started the day exchanging hard-earned baskets. The two would go back and forth until halfway through the first half, when DePaul shut the Gophers’ offense down for seven consecutive minutes.
During this duration, DePaul tacked on 10 unanswered points to take the lead, a lead they did not give up for the remainder of the game.
Despite the poor shooting performance overall, Payne persevered. The freshman has missed one shot all season and did not miss in the previous game. Monday, he shot perfectly from the field again and was responsible for 10 of Minnesota’s 22 points at the half.
On the other side, the speed of DePaul guards Javan Johnson and Umoja Gibson troubled the Gophers all night. By using their speed, they swiftly cut past their defenders and drove to the basket. Most of the time, it resulted in a quick bucket, as help from other Gopher defenders came in too late. The backcourt duo combined for 16 points, seven rebounds and five assists in the first half.
After the halftime break, it seemed as if Minnesota forgot about their shooting woes and began to pick up the pace. Garcia and Ta’Lon Cooper started the offense off with two three-pointers, followed by a four-minute scoring run that cut the deficit to nine.
Fans at the Barn erupted in cheers, but the positivity wasn’t enough for them to climb out of the hole dug in the first half. DePaul continued to attack the boards on offense, allowing them a second chance to tack on a few more points. This proved to be the difference maker as Minnesota failed to complete the comeback and slowly fell back into a deficit until the clock hit zero.
The loss moves them to 2-1 on the season. They will look to keep their record above five hundred when they face Central Michigan at home on Thursday at 8 p.m.
