Gophers feel agony of 0-3 in league play with loss to Ohio State
MINNEAPOLIS -- DeAndre Mathieu thought his Gophers team was going to win. He was sure of it.
When Mathieu's teammate, Nate Mason, converted a three-point play with 24 seconds remaining to tie the game in overtime, Minnesota regained its confidence. Williams Arena was rocking. A victory seemed within reach.
But when the Gophers needed to make one more big stop on defense, they simply couldn't. Ohio State's Marc Loving hit a game-winning jumper with five seconds remaining to topple Minnesota at Williams Arena, 74-72. The Gophers had one last chance with the ball but Shannon Scott swatted it away before Minnesota could get a shot off.
The Gophers are now 0-3 to open the Big Ten season after previously losing on the road to Purdue and Maryland, but Tuesday's overtime loss was no doubt the most devastating.
"Obviously that one stings a little bit," Minnesota coach Richard Pitino said. "I thought we did a great job, showed a lot of heart, coming back. But we just didn't make plays when we needed to make them, and they did."
Indeed, the Gophers did come back from a 12-point deficit early in the second half, something that might have made previous Minnesota teams crumble. Not this one, though. Instead, they battled back, much to the delight of the 13,138 fans at Williams Arena, most of them clad in black for Tuesday's blackout.
Senior guard Andre Hollins found his shooting touch, finally, scoring 12 points in the second half after going scoreless before halftime. Mason stepped up big in key situations, too, sending the game to overtime at the free-throw line.
And the Gophers buckled down defensively on Buckeyes freshman D'Angelo Russell, who scored 25 points in the first half but had just two points after halftime on a pair of free throws in overtime. Minnesota's locker room seemed to take it personally that an opposing player dropped 25 points on them in just 20 minutes.
"Twenty-five points in the first half, that's a pride thing to let a guy score 25 in the first half," Mathieu said of Russell. "He's running around, smiling and all that. You don't allow that on your home floor. Our goal was definitely to shut him down."
They did just that as Russell was a non-factor offensively after halftime. Yet for all the positives Minnesota can take away from Tuesday's game, the end result was not a positive one.
The Gophers remain winless in conference play but certainly felt that first victory should have come on Tuesday.
"We've just got to make winning plays, that's what it is," said Hollins, who added seven rebounds and a pair of assists. "That's what it all boils down to. We're right there, but we just need to get over that hump."
Mason came up big again in overtime, converting a three-point play after driving into the lane with under 30 seconds remaining. He hit the layup and drew the foul on the play. After Mason hit the ensuing free throw, Ohio State had the ball with 24 seconds to play.
Even at that juncture, Mathieu believed Minnesota could pull off a victory.
"I thought we were going to win," he said. "I knew we were ready to get a stop on the other end. Just go down and score a basket. It was going to be (another) OT or we were going to get the win. Loving made a nice shot and then Scott made a nice play."
There's still plenty of basketball to be played -- 15 games, in fact -- and Minnesota certainly isn't panicking just yet after three straight Big Ten losses. The Gophers believe they're close to turning that corner, too. Players cited the defensive intensity this year's team is playing with, something last year's squad didn't have at this point.
"It's really early," Mathieu said. "I feel there's going to be a couple teams not too far ahead of us in the Big Ten race. We've got a lot of games to play. We could go on a streak at any time. We've just got to keep chipping away and keep getting better every day."
Things don't get any easier for Minnesota as the Gophers now go on the road to face Michigan. Then again, not much is easy in the Big Ten in this day and age.
Pitino's team has found that out the hard way through three games and three losses.
"I thought tonight was the most heart we showed in any of the games," Pitino said. "I thought that we really really showed a lot of character, a lot of heart. I think we're getting there, but we've just got to find a way to win."
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