DES MOINES -- As University of Minnesota forward Jordan Murphy walked to the locker room Thursday at Wells Fargo Arena, he let out a sigh of relief and said to himself “we needed that one.”
The tenth-seeded Gophers (22-13) hit a season-high 11 3-pointers in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to upset No. 7 Louisville, 86-76. Minnesota will play Michigan State or Bradley on Saturday with the tip-off time to be announced later Friday night.
Freshman Gabe Kalscheur led that charge with five 3s, and scored 24 points, just one shy of his career-high. Kalscheur was one of five Gophers who scored in double figures.
In fact, all five who scored in double figures -- Murphy (18), Amir Coffey (18), Kalscheur, Dupree McBrayer, (13) and Daniel Oturu (13) -- were the only ones who had points.
Kalscheur wouldn’t admit whether it was his best game, but liked how he played in first national tournament game.
“I wouldn’t say that this was my best game, but my most complete game? I would say so,” Kalscheur said. “I feel like I got it done on the defensive end and on the offensive end. I feel like we did really well defensively and offensively. There are things we could work on and stuff.”
McBrayer hit the first 3 with 7 minutes, 14 seconds left in the first half that gave Minnesota an 18-17 lead. On its next possession, Coffey hit his first 3 of the night.
Then, Kalscheur got hot. He scored the next eight points for the Gophers, and even though they led by seven points, they wouldn’t surrender the lead to the Cardinals.
“He's a terrific three-point shooter,” Gophers coach Richard Pitino said. “He has a beautiful stroke. He's one of those guys, he deserves success. Doesn't matter what you do that guy doesn't take the day off. He sneaks into the gym. He's a throwback and he deserves success.”
The lead for the Gophers grew as much as 19, and did it for awhile without Murphy’s services. Murphy said his back locked up on him but wanted to play through it.
“I mean, I don't know what else I can do about it, but for now just get treatment and take care of it,” Murphy said.
The Gophers had a bad taste in their mouth after their last experience. Minnesota dropped its first-round game to Middle Tennessee State.
They wanted to erase that bad taste on Thursday.
“Coming into this game. Everyone was talking about Louisville,” Coffey said. “We were the underdog in this game and to come out with the win … we got to keep going and move forward.”
No. 2 Michigan State 76, No. 15 Bradley 65
The Braves certainly weren't scared to go toe-to-toe with a national brand name. In fact, Bradley had a 35-34 lead at the half.
But, the Spartans (29-6) grinded out a win on Thursday to face Minnesota in Saturday's second-round contest in Des Moines.
Michigan State went on a 9-0 run that put it ahead 63-55 with 2:41 left to bounce the pesky Missouri Valley Conference tournament champions from the national tournament.
The Spartans also held Bradley (20-15) to seven total second-half rebounds.
"I think coach said at the end of the game even after all that we'e still one of the last 32 (teams) standing right now," Spartans guard Cassius Winston said. "We know there is a lot we can improve, but that's our goal to get better and better each and every step of the way and now we got a chance to get better and that's always a good thing."
Winston scored a game-high 26 points; Elijah Childs led Bradley with 19 points.
No comments:
Post a Comment