Minnesota Golden Gophers fall to Temple Owls in Puerto Rico
An early morning tipoff in Puerto Rico was not kind to the Minnesota Golden Gophers basketball squad as they fell to the Temple Owls 75-70 in the first round of Puerto Rico Tipoff.
The game was a close one and in the start of the second half it looked like Richard Pitino’s squad would prevail. The second half opened with a five point lead for Temple, but the Gophers got out to a 17-2 run to get up six. The momentum the Gophers built didn’t last. The more seasoned Owls got back in gear and put up a 15-2 run of their own.
It was interesting down the stretch, but the Owls got out to a big enough lead to make it seem like the Gophers needed a miracle to come back and win.
Nate Mason scored a career-high 20 points in the game. Carlos Morris added 16 and Joey King had his worst game of the season putting up only 10 points in a game where he was limited due to foul trouble.
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The Gophers didn’t get any production from the bench with four players combining for six points. Temple’s Obi Enechionyia outscored the Gophers bench by himself with 14 off of Temple’s pine.
Jaylen Bond had the game of the day for Temple with 19 points and eight rebounds.
With the loss, the Gophers get to play another really early game in Puerto Rico on Friday with tipoff set for 9:30 am central. The Gophers will take on Missouri State in the loser’s bracket. Temple will take on #22 Butler.
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