Dawson Garcia's overtime heroics lift Gophers over Northwestern

Garcia made key plays in OT and scored 20 points to lead U.

In the span of 45 seconds, Dawson Garcia turned a tie game into a five-point lead for the Gophers men's basketball team. 

Tied 63-63 with 2 minutes, 31 seconds remaining in overtime, Garcia hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key to break the tie. On the other end, he saved the ball from going out of bounds off the U, making a diving play to throw the ball off the leg of Northwestern's Matthew Nicholson before he fell off the elevated court at The Barn.

"I was on the floor, and I never felt more alive," he said.

Garcia then drew a foul back on the offensive end and hit two free throws. That gave the Gophers a five-point cushion in an eventual 75-66 victory over the Wildcats. 

"I thought when (Garcia) made that (3-pointer in overtime) that just energized our defense. There was even more confidence," Gophers coach Ben Johnson said. "Then you make that hustle play that he made, and it just kind of snowballs. So I thought that was a huge play, you know, big-time shot from him." 

That sequence was the eventual winning run for the Gophers (14-7, 5-5 Big Ten) in a game filled with runs. Despite trailing by nine points early in the first half, the U battled back to take a lead with 44 seconds left in the second half off a 3 from Cam Christie. 

Elijah Hawkins, who briefly exited and limped to the locker room early in the second half after suffering an apparent leg injury, later hit two free throws to put the Gophers up three with 20 seconds remaining. But the Wildcats (15-7, 6-5) wouldn't go down without a furious fight. 

Boo Buie got one back from the free-throw line after being intentionally fouled. The Wildcats then trapped Mike Mitchell Jr. in the corner on the ensuing inbounds pass. He attempted to give it up to Garcia, but it went out of bounds off the big man. 

Buie drew a foul on Hawkins while driving to the hoop in the waning seconds and hit two crucial free throws to tie the game. Hawkins missed a game-winning attempt from half court, sending the game to an extra session. 

Garcia finished with 20 points and two boards and made 9 of 11 from the free-throw line, with most of those attempts coming in the second half and overtime. 

The collective came up big for the U down the stretch. Pharrel Payne had two key blocks late in the second half that ended up being fruitless possessions for the Wildcats. He had four blocks for the game to go along with 14 points and nine boards.

"Lots of pride," Payne said of how he approaches his defense. "You see me out there with a lot of energy, smile on my face."

Payne's performance was even more impressive considering he was questionable ahead of the game with a nagging back injury. You wouldn't have been able to tell if you were among the announced crowd of 9,492 at Williams Arena, as he slammed down one highlight-reel dunk after another, including one in transition in overtime that essentially put the game on ice. 

Absolute monster today 💪 https://t.co/WYVNYTqkCA

— Minnesota Men's Basketball (@GopherMBB) February 3, 2024

Everything that happened down the stretch was made possible by the Gophers closing the first half on a 10-0 run that was capped by a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Hawkins. That made it a 27-27 game at the halftime break. 

"As a group, we just want to chase the victories," Garcia said. "It gets to a point where you might hit some walls once and a while in a game, but this group knows how to get through those walls."