Gophers drop a home game to USC in OT 70-69

On Friday night, Minnesota battled back in the second half to take USC to overtime but fell short, dropping their first home game of the season. Chad Baker-Mazara was unstoppable for the first 30 minutes of the game, finishing with 29 points and 8 assists, and made two free throws 10 seconds left in the overtime period to put USC ahead for good. Cade Tyson had a contested look from the baseline to win it for Minnesota, but the ball hit iron and the clock expired.

THE STAT: This stat didn’t really factor into the outcome but USC was fantastic on the offensive boards. They acquired 45% of their own misses, which is very good. But they only scored 2 second-chance points.

TURNING POINT: Similar to the Iowa game where Minnesota trailed for much of the second half but battled back to then see the lead go back and forth in the final minutes of regulation and overtime. But Baker-Mazara’s free throws sealed it in the end.

HOT: Baker-Mazara was on fire for the first 30 minutes of the game. As stated, he finished with 29, eight assists and was 7/7 from the free throw line.

NOT: But Mazera also went the final eight minutes of regulation without any points because Reynolds played outstanding defense on the USC 6’7” guard. This defense by Reynolds was critical to the comeback.

GOOD MOVE: USC coach Eric Mussellman put Gabe Dynes on Langston Reynolds for most of the second half and overtime. Dynes is 7’5” and when Reynolds had the ball outside of the three-point line he didn’t bother to come with eight feet of Reynolds, daring him to shoot it. Dyne was able to stay in the paint and the Gopher offense stalled. This is just unfortunate because the Gophers have very limited options.

NOTABLE: This is the first USC win over Minnesota since 1967. Not unusual, but a little humorous.

UP NEXT: Wisconsin comes to the Barn on Tuesday.