The Minnesota Golden Gophers were able to cast aside poor outside shooting and bad transition defense via the stellar first half of Jordan Murphy and Eric Curry’s best game as a Gopher and defeat a pesky Rutgers Scarlet Knight squad 72-63 in an early Saturday conference tip-off.
The Gophers started the game sans the tired legs most assumed they would have on short rest after a double overtime game. They jumped out to a 9-2 lead on the back of a resurgent Jordan Murphy and opportunistic team defense. Though Minnesota would quickly give this lead back, seeing the Scarlet Knights capitalize on terrible transition defense from Gopher guards, they quickly began to convert in the half court on offense by feeding Murphy and Eric Curry.