University of Minnesota Athletics
GOLDEN GOPHERS UPSET NO. 20 OHIO STATE
1/26/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The Minnesota Golden Gophers won their third straight Big Ten game at home, downing No. 20/23 Ohio State 89-71 Saturday afternoon in Williams Arena in front of 13,838 fans. It was the first conference loss for the Buckeyes (15-3 overall, 6-1 in the Big Ten), while Minnesota upped its record to 11-7, 4-3 in the league. The 89 Minnesota points were the most by an OSU opponent this season, snapping a nine-game Buckeye winning streak.
It was the first win for the Gophers in their last seven meetings with OSU, dating back to a 76-53 victory Jan. 24, 1998. The 18-point win was also the largest margin of victory this season for Minnesota in a conference tilt.
Travarus Bennett's career-high 21 points led Minnesota. The senior guard also had seven rebounds, while making all six shots from the field, including three from three-point range, and all six of his free throws.
The Gophers led 40-33 at halftime and upped their lead to 11 points less than a minute into the second stanza, but OSU went on a 21-2 over the next five minutes to take a 54-46 lead. The Gophers responded with an 8-0 run to tie the game, following a Jerry Holman basket, with 12:07 remaining.
Following a Rick Rickert three-pointer, the Golden Gophers held a 68-61 advantage with 7:11 remaining. It was the ninth trey in the contest for Minnesota in just 15 attempts. The 60 percent shooting from behind the arc was third best single-game effort in school history.
The Buckeyes were able to get within three points, following a Sean Connolly three-pointer with 6:10 remaining (70-67), but the Gophers ended the game with a 19-4 to seal the victory. The game was capped by a Holman dunk with two seconds remaining.
Rickert reached double figures for the fourth straight game, adding 19 points, while Holman and Dusty Rychart scored 12 and 10 points, respectively. Connolly led the Buckeyes with 17 points, while Brent Darby and Brian Brown each scored 14.
The Gophers return to action Wednesday night, when they take on Penn State at 7 p.m. The game can be seen locally on KSTC-Channel 45.
GOLDEN GOPHER BASKETBALL POST-GAME QUOTES January 26, 2002 Minnesota 89, Ohio State 71 Jim O'Brien - Head Coach for Ohio State "This was not one of our better defensive efforts, but more of the credit should go to them. They are a very good basketball team. They have a lot of answers and they inverse you defensively. They gave us match-up problems today; I'm impressed with how they played today." "I thought we missed some opportunities, but give credit to them. We're giving up 60 points per game and they got 30 more than our average. They make it hard to do stuff because of their length." "I told our guys that this was going to happen sooner or later. We were not going to go undefeated. I'm not surprised at this; I'm not overly disappointed. We just have to regroup on Tuesday." Dan Monson - Head Coach for Minnesota "Obviously I'm happy for our guys. Today they were rewarded for a tough week of practice. They are getting better; they are tough minded and are getting after loose balls. It's very important for them to get after those loose balls. I told Dusty Rychart this week that it's about role modeling. You have to lead a team from the top down, from the seniors down, and I think our seniors really stepped it up tonight. They responded and I'm really happy. Kevin Burleson had 9 assists and one turnover. We tightened up. It shows that this team is coachable and they stay together. We're growing as a team and going in the right direction." "I didn't have my mind made up about who would be starting today's game. I was thinking about it all week. It was a game time decision. I wanted to set a tone of accountability for the guys starting that weren't producing all game. I got tired of saying 'don't do that, don't do that' so I decided to take something away. I had to do something to set the tone. "We didn't have bad body language. The only time I saw any was the 30 seconds coming out of the 12 minute time out in the second half. We outscored a good offensive team and scored 89 points against a good defensive team. We won't be a team that holds other teams to 40 points, but we have to get the stops." Rick Rickert "Today was a real confidence booster for us. If we can beat a team like Ohio State, then we can beat anybody. We just need to maintain the intensity we had today." "I thought we hit our shots better, but more importantly we looked for better shots. We moved the ball better and took smarter shots. Our chemistry as a team is definitely coming along and the team is coming together everyday." Kerwin Fleming "We came into the game well prepared. We huddled up before the game and I told the guys that we had to come out confident and positive. We did and that helped the team focus. And we maintained our confidence throughout the game." "We need every win we can get, especially at home so we can get ready for the tournament." Travarus Bennett "Ohio State is one of those teams that plays aggressive. We had to play aggressive against them. Everybody was on the floor going after loose balls and I think that is a=what won the game for us. We out-scraped them."
