University of Minnesota Athletics
Late Run Propels Badgers To 67-62 Win Over Minnesota
2/16/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Minnesota went on a 26-4 run between the first and second halves to take a 47-34 lead with 13:09 remaining in the game. However, the Golden Gophers proceeded to follow their run with a five and a half minute spell without scoring a point to let the Badgers back into the game.
Minnesota was led by Jerry Holman, who tied a career-high with 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting. Rick Rickert added 12 points and a career-high five assists. Dusty Rychart was held under 10 points for the first time in 10 games with just eight points.
Penney was 9-of-13 from the field and added five rebounds to his 30-point effort. Devin Harris added 11 for the Badgers.
Minnesota heads to Michigan State on Thursday to face the Spartans in a nationally-televised game on ESPN. The tip is set for 6:00 p.m.
GOLDEN GOPHER BASKETBALL POST-GAME QUOTES Williams Arena February 16, 2002 Minnesota 62, Wisconsin 67 Attendance: 14,854 Wisconsin Head Coach Bo Ryan ?Coach Monson did a good job with his guys. You have to give credit where credit is due. There's not a team in the Big Ten that has guys with wing-spans as big as Minnesota. That's something you need in the lane ? and Minnesota's got it. I want to recruit guys like that.? ?It was huge to be within five at the half, we could have been down 15. [Against Indiana] last Wednesday, we were hanging on with just our fingers, but tonight we were clawing at something else. On Rickert ?On defense, you don?t let him get the easy shots. We did a good job ?chesting? up and that's what you need to do against him.? Minnesota Head Coach Dan Monson ?Obviously, we let this game get away. We?ve had a couple of those types of games, but not here at home. I was disappointed in the way we started and ended. In the end of the game we got cautious.? ?Give Wisconsin credit. They were relentless and kept digging and digging. We had no answer for [Kirk] Penny. He kept them in the game and got them the win. We struggled to get stops; we held them most of the game, but they scored in their last 8-10 possessions. We had no stops at the end of the game. We can?t win trading baskets.? ?We could never guard them well in man ? when we did that they lit it up. There wasn?t an answer. There is a time in every game where it's ?me versus you? and we weren?t able to stop them when we got to that point. We had the opportunity to put the game away when we were up 10- 12, but we didn?t. They wouldn?t go away and stuck it out.? ?We have to worry about ourselves, like we have all season. It is easy to be competitive when things are going well, but when things start going the other way, you have to work though it. We can?t drop many games and now that we?re going on the road, we have to play well. Like in the beginning of the year, our goal is to get to the NCAA and that's still in the picture.? Minnesota forward Rick Rickert ?The most disappointing thing about this loss was our lack of intensity throughout the game. Against Northwestern, we had very little intensity. Coach challenged us this game to pick it up. We didn?t do that today. We only were intense for spurts, and at the most crucial part of the game we let them score at will. Our defense really let us down at the end. All we needed was one stop and we couldn?t get it.? Minnesota forward Dusty Rychart ?Right now we are all very disappointed in ourselves for losing at home and losing the way we did. It wasn?t pretty and the feeling in the locker room right now is not something this team has been used to feeling at home.? ?I really don?t know how to describe it, but this whole week it's felt like something's been missing with this team. The intensity hasn?t been there in practice and that carried over to our loss at Northwestern. We thought we fixed that problem coming into today's game, but with the way we started out, that wasn?t the case.? ?I thought we made good adjustments after the slow start and really took control of the game. The game was ours ? we just lost it. We ended the game like we started it. You could say we dribbled this game off our foot.? Minnesota forward Mike Bauer ?Today's loss was unacceptable. Our play at the beginning and at the end of the game was not something you can get by with in the Big Ten and expect to win. We simply gave this game to them. Letting them score on their last 10 or so possessions shows just how little defense this team played. That is unacceptable as well.? ?I hope all the guys on this team remember this feeling that we have right now because hopefully we can learn from this, carry it on to Michigan State and put a pounding in them.?
