Gophers close nonconference schedule with win over Maine

Mike Mitchell Jr. led Minnesota with 18 points in Friday's win.

Elijah Hawkins and Mike Mitchell Jr. got the Gophers men’s basketball team started. Pharrel Payne helped Minnesota finish.

It wasn’t always smooth sailing, but the Gophers closed their nonconference schedule with an 80-62 win over Maine Friday night at Williams Arena and will carry a five-game winning streak into the restart of Big Ten play. 

That begins Thursday against Michigan at 8 p.m. in Ann Arbor, Mich.

But first the Gophers (10-3) had Maine (8-7) on the schedule, and they got off to a slow start early in the first half. But with Hawkins pushing the pace and Mitchell knocking down four 3-pointers in the first frame, Minnesota eventually found its way to a 41-28 halftime lead.

Mitchell scored 12 of his 18 points in the first half. Hawkins scored 10 in the opening frame and finished his night with 12 points and 10 assists.

The Gophers, however, weren’t out of the woods as the Black Bears went on an 8-0 run early in the second half as they whittled the Gophers’ lead down to five.

Peter Filipovity paced the Maine offense with 16 points and 13 rebounds.

Then Payne made his presence felt. The sophomore forward went on his own 6-0 run and had a huge block on the other end as Minnesota slowly started to pull away. He scored 10 of his 12 points in the second half and also had eight rebounds on the night.

"It's good any time you can see the big fella, see it go in. And I thought rebounding was pretty good," Gophers coach Ben Johnson said. "I thought he did a good job of protecting the paint and the rim and going and getting a couple with two hands." 

Dawson Garcia was back in the starting lineup for the Gophers after a three-game absence due to an ankle injury. "It was really good just to be back out there with the guys battling," Garcia said. "Felt really good." 

While Garcia said the ankle felt good during Friday's contest, he appeared to be shaking off some rust early, hitting just 1 of his first 4 shots, but finished the game with 12 points on 4-of-10 shooting and six rebounds. 

"I expected he wasn't going to be crazy sharp, there's no way with that amount of time off you're going to," Johnson said. "But I just thought as the game kind of progressed he worked his way through it. And I thought his effort and his intention was in the right place, but it was definitely good to get that first game under his belt." 

When Payne was subbed out with just under 10 minutes left in the second half, the crowd of 8,658 at The Barn gave him a raucous ovation. It got even louder when Hawkins fed Isaiah Ihnen for a huge dunk that gave Minnesota a 65-47 lead late.

While the Black Bears were once more able to whittle down the Gophers’ lead to 10, they weren’t able to get any closer. Then Minnesota pulled away for another nonconference win and some momentum as it turns toward conference play. 

"Same approach every single game. We believe that if we just have the same approach, we can win any given game," Mitchell said.