The Minnesota Gophers traveled to Iowa City on Sunday for a pre Super Bowl matinee against the Hawkeyes, a road contest Ben Johnson’s group needed to have, in order to climb into the NCAA Tournament conversation. And the Golden Gophers brought their A-game to Carver-Hawkeye arena for the first.
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Elijah Hawkins and Pharrel Payne got themselves into early foul trouble, but the Gophers didn’t skip a beat. Dawson Garcia and Mike Mitchell Jr calmly took the game into their hands and built up a 13-point lead by halftime.
Minnesota Gophers Dominate 1st half in Iowa
Garcia went 7-for-8 from the field and scored 18 points in the first 20 minutes. Mike Michell Jr went 3-for-5 from deep and added two free throws for 11 points of his own. As a team, the Gophers shot 55% from the field and 67% from deep. They could not have dreamed up a better 1st-half scenario.
Yet somehow they came out of halftime even hotter than they went into it. This time, it was Cam Christie leading the charge, scoring 10 of the Gophers’ first 14 points in the 2nd half. With just over 14 minutes left, the Gophers held a 19 point lead.