University of Minnesota Athletics
MINNESOTA FALLS TO WAKE FOREST IN ACC/BIG TEN CHALLENGE
11/27/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The University of Minnesota Golden Gophers were unable to hold on as they dropped their first ever game in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, losing 85-79 to 23rd-ranked Wake Forest at Lawrence Joel Coliseum Tuesday night in Winston-Salem, N.C. It was also Minnesota's first loss of the season, falling to 3-1.
Led by senior Dusty Rychart's 22 points and 13 rebounds, the Golden Gophers led 39-36 at halftime and owned the edge for much of the second stanza before letting things slip away. After Travarus Bennett's two free throws with 1:38 remaining gave Minnesota a 79-74 lead, the Demon Deacons scored six straight points to regain the advantage for the first time since the 5:10 mark of the first half.
As Michael Bauer and Kevin Burleson both missed three-point attempts, Wake Forest made four-of-five free throws down the stretch to seal the game. The Demon Deacons made 24-of-28 from the charity stripe in the contest.
Rychart, who recorded the Golden Gophers' second double-double of the season, scored 16 of his team-high total in the first half. His previous season-high was 10.
Wake Forest (5-1), who reached the finals of the Preseason NIT Tournament before losing to Syracuse, joined Duke as the only teams with 3-0 records in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. The Demon Deacons have won their last five match-ups with Big Ten teams, dating back to a 1989 loss to Purdue.
The game also marked the first loss for Minnesota, who had defeated Florida State and Virginia the past two seasons, in this match-up of the top two basketball conferences in the nation.
Bennett and Burleson each scored 12 points for Minnesota, but did so on 8-of-25 shooting. Bauer, who had led the team in scoring during its three victories averaging 18.0 points per game, scored just 11 on 4-of- 14 shooting from the field. The sophomore was just 3-of-9 from three point range after coming into the game hitting .467 (7-of-15) from beyond the arc.
The Golden Gophers return to action Saturday when the host Texas-Pan American at 1 p.m. in Williams Arena.
