University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota's Depth Too Much for Jackrabbits
12/24/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Minneapolis -- Minnesota's depth and hot shooting was more than South Dakota State could handle Wednesday night at Williams Arena, as the Golden Gophers wore down the Jackrabbits during a 92-62 win.
A total of six players reached double figures for Minnesota (9-3), which won its fifth-straight game to conclude the non-conference portion of its schedule. Junior guard Blake Hoffarber was held to four points in the opening half, but made four three-pointers after the break to finish with a team-high 16 points for Minnesota, marking the fifth consecutive game that Hoffarber has led the Gophers in scoring.
"I think that this team's good at getting someone the ball if he's hot," Hoffarber said. "It's good that we have a lot of depth, because if one guy's hot we give him the ball, and if one guy's not hot, guys can come off the bench and they're hot. I think our team's been really unselfish this year, and hopefully we'll keep that up going into Big Ten play."
South Dakota State (5-8) led 20-14 near the midway point of the opening half before sophomore guard Devoe Joseph sparked the Gophers with six-straight points to tie the game at the 10:28 mark. Minnesota never looked back from that point on, as the Golden Gophers continued to push the pace, and outscored the Jackrabbits, 37-11, to lead by 20 points (51-31) at the half.
Things were going so well, in fact, that an attempted alley-oop pass from Joseph to freshman forward Rodney Williams instead swished through the hoop for an odd three-pointer as time ran down in the opening half. Joseph led the Gophers with nine points at the break.
"Coming in, I was concerned about South Dakota State," Minnesota head coach Tubby Smith said. "I think our key tonight was putting pressure on SDSU and pushing the tempo. I think that played to our advantage, and I really was impressed with our play from top to bottom."
The Jackrabbits opened the second half on an 11-5 run to cut it to 56-42, but then Hoffarber started to make three-pointers to keep the Gophers well out in front. Hoffarber's third trey of the second half gave Minnesota a 23-point lead, 70-47, with 13:29 remaining, and the reigning Big Ten Player of the Week finished the game 4-for-7 from beyond the arc and 6-for-9 overall.
During Hoffarber's five-game stretch of leading the Gophers in scoring, he has made 35-of-52 (.673) field goals, including 22-of-36 (.611) treys, and averaged 18.6 points per game. Minnesota has scored 89 or more points in each game, with an average of 92.6 points in each of the wins.
As a team, Minnesota made 37-of-68 field goal attempts for 54.4 percent, while limiting SDSU to just 21-for-66 (.318). The Golden Gophers held a narrow 40-39 edge in rebounding, with sophomore forward Ralph Sampson III grabbing a team-high six boards and blocking three shots.
The Gophers also received 12 points from senior guard Lawrence Westbrook, 11 points off the bench from Joseph, and 10 points and six assists from junior guard Al Nolen. Senior forward Damian Johnson also had 10 points to go along with five rebounds, three blocked shots, and two steals, and junior forward Paul Carter scored 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting.
SDSU's Garrett Callahan scored a game-high 25 points in the loss, making 6-of-13 attempts from long-range, while Nate Wolters came off the bench to add 14 points and a game-best seven rebounds for the Jacks.
Minnesota will now take a short Holiday break, before preparing for its Big Ten-opener against Penn State next Tuesday, Dec. 29, at Williams Arena. That game is scheduled for an 8:00 p.m. tipoff, and will be televised by ESPN2.
