Minnesota Basketball: Gophers Hold On to Beat Indiana 75-74

THE FACTS

The Gophers pulled out a 1 point win over Indiana to give them their 4th consecutive win when Akeem Springs followed his own miss to get a put-back to go down. Nate Mason led the Gophers with 30 points, Jordan Murphy had a double-double with 14 points and 15 rebounds but it was Springs who hit the game-winner.

QUOTABLE

Richard Pitino on Akeem Springs getting his own miss to score the go-ahead basket with 3.2 seconds left.

“He had been missing everything all game so it's nice he assumed he would miss that one too and chase down the rebound”

THE STAT

So many to choose from and many of them negative. But the Gophers overcame a lot of bad stats tonight. Reggie fouling out for the 8th time in the Big Ten season. Shooting 38.7% from the floor as a team. Akeem Srings shooting 2 of 13 for the night and not scoring any FGs till late in the second half. Indiana with 20 offensive rebounds. All killed us, making this win over Indiana all the more impressive.

HOT

Nate Mason scored 30 tonight, just 1 point shy of his career high and he is averaging 19.8 points over his last 6 games. Not a coincidence that Mason struggled prior to those 6 games during the Gopher’s 5-game losing streak.

NOT

Akeem Springs was 2/13 from the floor. The grad transfer, senior has been playing great since being inserted into the starting lineup, but really struggled shooting the ball tonight.

NOTABLE

The Gophers remain at home and face Michigan on Saturday (who plays Wisconsin on Thursday night). Another key game as the Gophers march towards an NCAA Tournament bid.