Men's basketball: Gophers fall to Northwestern

By Marcus Fuller
St. Paul Pioneer Press
MINNEAPOLIS - After giving up the most three-pointers in a game in University of Minnesota history over the weekend, Richard Pitino said he wasn’t that concerned about his perimeter defense after watching the Indiana game video.
Pitino said more than half of the 18 three-pointers were contested, almost dismissing the Hoosiers’ record-setting night like it could’ve happened to anybody.
But it was deja vu Wednesday with Minnesota giving up 15 three-pointers in a 72-66 loss against Northwestern at Williams Arena.
The Gophers (16-11, 5-9 Big Ten) were stubborn about sticking with their zone defense early, even though the Wildcats ranked ninth in the Big Ten in three-point shooting percentage (34.6) entering the game.
Second-year coach Chris Collins’ team upset Iowa on the road Sunday, but it couldn’t possibly catch fire the way Indiana did, right?
Wrong.
Minnesota was lucky just to get to halftime tied 36-36 after Northwestern (12-14, 3-10) shot 9 for 17 from three-point range in the first half.
It didn’t matter that the Wildcats had only reached double-digit three-pointers twice in Big Ten play, including a season-high 12 three-pointers in a loss against Michigan State.
The Gophers thought they were giving themselves some breathing room to open the second half when Joey King the first six points for a 42-36 lead.
Offense wasn’t the issue though.
In a nearly 6-1/2 minute span, Minnesota was outscored 16-0 with freshman Vic Law nailing three straight from beyond the arc.
Northwestern’s fourth three-pointer during that run came from Tre Demps, who gave his team a 52-42 lead at 12:08.
Andre Hollins, who had been averaging 21 points in his previous eight games, went scoreless in the first half.
But the senior guard finally ended the scoring drought with a three and DeAndre Mathieu added a layup to cut it to a five-point deficit.
A sparse crowd showed some life for a brief moment but Northwestern answered with consecutive baskets.
With less than five minutes left, Hollins had a three-point play and Mathieu scored in transition to make it 60-54.
But Nathan Taphorn and Bryan McIntosh hit the Wildcats’ 14th and 15th three-pointers to keep it at a nine-point margin.
McIntosh led all Northwestern players in double figures with 17 points and six assists.
Nate Mason led the Gophers with 15 points off the bench.
Pitino started 6-foot-9 Charles Buggs over 6-5 Carlos Morris for the third straight game to give his team more of a size advantage at small forward, but it didn’t do much defensively.
Buggs’ teammates weren’t much help, either.
In the first half, Pitino was so frustrated with King’s defense that he benched him after the junior forward hit two three-pointers.
But Pitino couldn’t bench the entire starting five.
To compound things, Hollins, who fouled out with 12 points in the second half to go with six assists, went scoreless in the first half.
He also picked up his third foul with two minutes into the second half.
By the time the Gophers brought their leading scorer back into the game they were already down double digits.
Last season, Hollins missed a 55-54 loss against Northwestern at the Barn because of an ankle injury.
On Tuesday, he said the seniors were thinking about the rematch being a “revenge game” for them because it was one of the losses that sank their NCAA tournament chances.
Pitino actually talked about the NCAA tournament for the first time this week because he wanted his team to realize that it still had opportunities against quality opponents such as Wisconsin and Michigan State.
Too bad the Gophers forgot about Northwestern.
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