After trailing for most of the second half, the Gophers scrambled to come back and Bobby Durkin hit a deep three in the final seconds to beat the Cincinnati Bearcats 63-61 and remain undefeated. Kyan Evans did most of the work throughout the game, scoring 26 points, grabbing 10 rebounds and five assists. But it was Isaac Asuma, advancing the ball to Bobby Durkin, who hit his only three of the game to give Minnesota the lead with 0.4 on the clock and essentially sealing the win for Minnesota.
Minnesota
jumped out to an early lead and seemed to be controlling the game for the first 10 minutes of the game. But then Cincinnati just slowly took control of the pace of the game, playing good defense and making things difficult for everyone on the Gopher offense except Evans.
The Bearcats forced a ton of Gopher turnovers that they turned into points, but Minnesota battled back and Durkin put the nail in the coffin to push the Gophers to 3-0 on the young season.
WHY IT MATTERED: The win is great, being 3-0 is great, but this will count as a Quad 1 win for the Gophers and is the best non-conference win since beating North Carolina and West Virginia in back-to-back games in 2011. This is a game that will benefit the Gophers as they try to get back to the NCAA Tournament.
GAME BALL: Evans had a double-double and his first big night scoring as a Gopher. But how do you not give the game ball to Bobby Buckets?
THE STAT: For Cincinnati, it was turnovers; for the Gophers, it was offensive rebounds. Both were garnering extra possessions for their team and frustrating their fans. Cincy forced 17 turnovers that resulted in 16 points. Minnesota grabbed 13 offensive rebounds that allowed them to score 11 bonus points.
TURNING POINT: This one was definitely in favor of the Bearcats, with a 79% chance of winning with 17 seconds left. And then MJ Collins missed the front end of a 1-and-1 and Asuma found Durkin for the game-winner.
HOT: Cincinnati’s Tylen Riley has scored 11 points this season, but he was on fire tonight. The senior guard was 8/17 and 6/9 from three to finish with 25 points.
NOT: Durkin had just two points and was 0-5 from three this game before he hit the game-winner. He had two threes blocked and looked out-of-sorts for most of this game.
UP NEXT: The Gophers get a couple of gimme-games with Southern and Western Illinois coming to the Barn before three straight games against Power 5 teams. Southern is on Thursday at 7:00.
