Another road win for the Gophers, this time over the USC Trojans.
The Gophers trailed for nearly 36 minutes of the game but managed to take a late lead and hold on to beat USC 69-66 in Southern Cal. Minnesota trailed the entire first half and took a brief lead with 7:16 remaining in the game.
The Trojans took the lead back and pushed it up to a 5-point lead with 1:31 left. In the final 91 seconds, Frank Mitchell had two offensive rebound put-backs to cut the lead to one and then Lu’cye Patterson went 4/4 from the line to push the Gophers ahead by three and USC was unable to execute in this timeframe.
A strange game for Minnesota, being led by Patterson and Mitchell while Dawson Garcia and Mike Mitchell Jr struggled. Mitchell had a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds while Patterson led all scorers with 25, 19 in the second half.
THE STAT: The stat for Minnesota was bench points. This is not a deep team, but Mitchell and Isaac Asuma combined for 27 points.
TURNING POINT: Frank Mitchell’s put-back dunk in the second half. It gave Minnesota their first lead of the game, but more importantly it sparked some confidence that they played with to the finish.
Frank Mitchell gives @GopherMBB their first lead of the day with this one #B1GMBBall on BTN pic.twitter.com/DywZlcTJ6Z
— Big Ten Men’s Basketball (@B1GMBBall) February 15, 2025
NOT: It’s been mentioned that Garcia struggled, along with Mitchell Jr. Combined, the two seniors were 4/17 shooting and 9 points. It was great to see more contributions from other guys when they absolutely needed it today.
UP NEXT: The Gophers remain in California to face UCLA on Tuesday at 9:30 CST on FS1.