Gophers overcome cold start, blow past Florida Gulf Coast

The U struggled to find a rhythm early without leading scorer Dawson Garcia.

It wasn’t a pretty start for the Gophers men’s basketball team Saturday morning.

Playing without leading scorer Dawson Garcia, ruled out before the game with an ankle injury, the U struggled to find an offensive rhythm early.

The Gophers turned the ball over on their opening two possessions and opened the game on 2-for-12 shooting to fall behind 15-4 to Florida Gulf Coast.

There were a few faint boos heard from the announced crowd of 7,317 at Williams Arena.

But the Gophers eventually settled down, took the lead before half and found their way in a 77-57 victory over the Eagles.

"We got to continue to just touch on, talk about the beginnings of games. ... We've got to continue to talk about it, address it and become a mature team," Gophers coach Ben Johnson said. "Because in the second half we are obviously a different level of intensity, execution. We got to find a way to put two halves together." 

The Gophers will likely need to find a way to do it without Garcia, at least for the short-term. Johnson said while the U is fortunate that Garcia's injury is not a high ankle sprain that it's unlikely he'll play on Tuesday for the Gophers' 7 p.m. home tip against Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). 

On Saturday without Garcia, Isaiah Ihnen provided a spark off the bench for the cold-shooting Gophers in the first half, knocking down a pair of 3-pointers and tallying eight points in the frame as the U (7-3) battled back from the early deficit. 

"Dawson's our best player, so that just means a lot of production is missing. But that also just means that everyone else has to step up a little bit," Ihnen said. "Our biggest strength is strength in numbers. We have a lot of talent on our team. 

"It's kind of expected for everyone else to step up." 

Ihnen finished with 13 points and five rebounds.

"Just for him to see one go in — he works as hard as anybody on our team and sticks to the plan and lives in the gym," Johnson said. "So you want to see guys rewarded." 

The Gophers finally took the lead in the first half at 25-24 when Mike Mitchell Jr. drove to the hoop for a layup, and The Barn responded with a roar. 

It was clear the tide had turned toward Minnesota.

Joshua Ola-Joseph was also key in leading the U out of the early deficit, scoring 11 of his team-high 17 points before the halftime break. Cam Christie added 11 points.

The U’s efforts on the offensive glass also sparked the turnaround as it turned 13 offensive rebounds into 11 second-chance points in the game.

The Gophers only turned the ball over seven times and recorded 23 assists. 

Zach Anderson and Keeshawn Kellman paced Florida Gulf Coast with 14 and 12 points, respectively.

Braeden Carrington was listed as questionable before the game with an ankle injury, but the guard came off the bench and played 21 minutes. It appeared at moments during the game that the ankle was bothering him. 

Johnson said after the game that Carrington was limited and that he wasn't going to play him more than 22 minutes. 

He scored two points and had two boards. 

The Gophers completely took over in the second half with a 19-2 run in which they held the Eagles scoreless for stretches of 4 minutes, 18 seconds and 2 minutes, 26 seconds. The Eagles (3-8) ended each drought with a made free throw. 

"I thought their physicality hurt us to start, they were way more physical. Their motor was way better than us in the first 20 minutes. ... And we knew second half if they didn't defend, and they didn't bring that, match that intensity and raise it, it was going to be a long night," Johnson said. "It was going to go to the distance. I thought they rose to the challenge."