Gophers escape with 68-65 win over Central Michigan

The Gophers men’s basketball team doesn’t look at their close wins in non-conference games as flirting with disaster, but rather learning how to win with a new group at the start of the season.

Minnesota was pressured by Central Michigan on Monday, but the U escaped with a 68-65 win at Williams Arena.

Chippewas guard Jacobi Heady’s 3-point attempt at the buzzer hit the front of the rim.

The Gophers (5-1) were a 13-point favorite against Central Michigan, which had a KenPom ranking of 121 below Minnesota. However, the Chippewas (3-3) had only an 8-point loss to the no. 10 Marquette on Nov. 11.

Minnesota’s previous loss was to North Texas on Nov. 13, but their KenPom ranking is 72 — now 10 spots ahead of Minnesota entering Monday. The U also trailed Omaha and Yale at the half this season.

Lu’Cye Patterson got off to a slow shooting start to the season and knew he just had to see a few go in. On Monday, Patterson finished with 19 points and made four 3-pointers, none more important than one that hit the iron. , jumped high in the air before falling through the net with less than two minutes remaining. That gave Minnesota a 62-58 lead.

Dawson Garcia, who finished with 22 points, made four clutch free throws in the final minute to make it 66-61, but a Drew Barbee came off the bench cold but hit a 3-pointer to cut it to 66-64.

Garcia missed two more of three from the stripe and Patterson missed one of two to give the Chippewas chances to stay in the game before Heady’s hiv.

After missing its first five shots Monday — which continued a trend of slow starts in the first half — Minnesota used a 14-0 run to go up 14-4 with 12 minutes left.

But the Gophers suffered a series of consecutive turnovers as part of Central Michigan’s 21-7 stretch to take a 25-21 lead.

Tied 32-32 at the half, the Gophers shot 46 percent from the field in the first half, including 40 percent from 3-point range. Both were improvements over the season average.

In the first 20 minutes, Dawson Garcia led Minnesota with eight points and Isaac Asuma chipped in six. Both had a pair of 3-pointers.

Brennan Rigsby, the U’s other leading scorer, picked up two quick fouls and was gone for the night. He did not score for 18 minutes.

New Gophers forward Frank Mitchell had his best half of the young season with six points, four boards, three assists, two blocks. The 6-foot-8, 260-pound Ugnius threw Jerusevicius off and Jerusevicius retaliated with a technical foul. Mitchell later shouldered a CMU player as the players went back to the huddle

The most memorable was drawing a technician on the Chippewa player and then pointing to his temples to indicate mind games. Then the block by a man owed a CMU player before the timeout

Chippewa forward Ugnius Jerusevicius led all scorers at the half with 13 points. He had two 3-pointers this season, but made all three of his attempts in the first half.