Minnesota defeats Rutgers 68-65

Brace Hemmelgarn; gophersports.comA shorthanded Minnesota summoned up a fantastic performance to defeat Rutgers 68-65 at Williams Arena. The Gophers improve to 11-5 on the season and 2-5 in conference play. Payton Willis led all scorers with 32 points in the best performance from a Gopher I remember since Andre Hollins against Memphis back in 2012.

Today was the kind of performance that deserves to be rewarded with a win. Minnesota met the minimum number of scholarship players to play a basketball game today. Jamison Battle, Eric Curry, Will Ramberg, and E.J. Stephens were all unavailable. With injuries to other players, Ben Johnson had a massive challenge to find offensive and defensive…