Rebounds, missed free throws and a quiet second half from sophomore Jamison Battle led to a heartbreaking loss Wednesday night.

No. 13 Wisconsin held off a hard-fought effort by the Gopher men’s basketball team in the final border battle of the regular season. Minnesota gave the Badgers all they could but couldn’t take advantage of multiple opportunities to take the lead late.

The Gophers got outrebounded 38-19, including the biggest offensive rebound of the night. Down two with under a minute left, Minnesota got the stop it needed only to see the ball roll into junior Tyler Wahl’s hands for his tenth rebound of the night.

A last-second three from senior Luke Loewe allowed the Gophers to lose by just one point at 68-67.

Battle was on a mission in the first half, scoring a game-high 14 points. He was determined to get to the hoop to give Minnesota every chance they could. He basically disappeared in the second half, scoring just three points.

“He’s a really good player, he got going early. Part of that was him, part of that was us, but that’s what good players do,” Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard said. “Second half, I thought we were a little better defensively and made things a little more difficult.”

Senior Payton Willis was held out of the starting lineup after missing the last game with COVID-19. He scored just two points in the first half but was a big factor in the late comeback in the second.

Willis hit a pair of threes in the midst of an 8-0 run to tie the game with under five minutes left. He finished the night with 13 points, six assists and four rebounds.

Minnesota had multiple opportunities to take the lead on free throws that just couldn’t get knocked down. They shot 13-19 from the charity stripe and lost by just one point.

“I thought he [Willis] gave us everything he had. I thought all our guys did, that’s the tough part,” head coach Ben Johnson said. It’s just the end of the game, those little details, we gotta continue to hit on and touch on and figure a way to flip that narrative.”

Senior Eylijah Stephens hit some big shots in the first half, including a three in the closing seconds of the half to go into the break trailing by just two. Stephens connected on two three-pointers and had 10 points at the half.

Stephens hit another three in the second before running into foul trouble. He finished with 13 points before fouling out.

Senior Brad Davison and sophomore Johnny Davis wouldn’t get much going in the first half. Senior Sean Sutherlin played outstanding against one of the nations’ best in Davis and held him to just 12 points before Davis fouled out.

“I thought it was big-time… to hold that kid [Davis] to 12 points on 3-9… Sean’s [Sutherlin] one of those guys where he takes it personal,” Johnson said. “I thought Sean’s effort was phenomenal, again, to do what he did against Johnny [Davis] … Sean’s got a lot of fight to him.”

Davison was also relatively quiet all night on the offensive end but hit a pair of clutch free throws down the stretch to help push Wisconsin past Minnesota.

On top of the large rebound difference, the Badgers did their damage in the paint behind Wahl and sophomore Steven Crowl. Wisconsin took a 36-20 advantage in the paint much in part to a game-high 20 points from Crowl. Wahl didn’t have as much luck in the second half, scoring just two points to finish with 12.

The Gophers will have their final home game Sunday when they host Indiana and try to even out their season series with the Hoosiers before their final two regular-season road games.

A return to Williams Arena after two road games was exactly what the Gophers men’s basketball team needed to re-energize themselves. Without senior Payton Willis, Minnesota needed a spark. Enter Luke Loewe.

Loewe was automatic from deep as he scored a career-high 24 points as a Gopher on six three-pointers. His biggest shot of the day came off a step-back three that stopped a Northwestern run and forced a timeout, electrifying the crowd.

“Luke’s a competitor, and he’s that guy that’ll do whatever it takes. Today it took him being really good offensively and making shots,” head coach Ben Johnson said. “I knew he’d play well… I think it’s a testament because he works so hard.

In its two previous games, the Gophers scored just 25 points and 19 points in the first half against Ohio State and Penn State. Loewe and sophomore Jamison Battle made sure that wasn’t an issue.

“I think the start was everything. Coach [Johnson] always says it: ‘if it starts well, it ends well’ and I think we kinda lived by that today,” Battle said.

The duo was very efficient in scoring as they combined to go 17-26 for 45 points to lead Minnesota to a 77-60 win.

Battle was on triple-double watch midway through the first, but came up short on second-half assists. He recorded his third double-double as a Gopher with 21 points and 14 rebounds to go along with five assists.

The Gophers as a unit were moving the ball well to set up open shots. Minnesota made 29 field goals, and 22 of them were off an assist. Loewe led the team with seven assists, while senior Eylijah Stephens had four and senior Sean Sutherlin had five.

Stephens had an important role in the double-digit win outside of his four assists. He grabbed eight rebounds and hit three three-pointers to score 15 points.

It was the Wildcats who got out to the hot start and hit back-to-back threes to open the game. The Gopher zone defense quickly quieted the Northwestern offense. Over the next 11 minutes, the Gophers went on a 28-7 run fueled by an energetic offensive surge.

Ball movement and cutting without the ball led to numerous wide-open threes, which Minnesota didn’t let go to waste. Loewe and Stephens each hit three deep balls as the unit shot 53.3% in the first half. It was almost inevitable that Minnesota would slow down in the second, but they still shot 47.8% from deep in the game.

After playing four games in a seven-day span, Minnesota finally has a break from traveling. The Gophers stay in Minnesota for their next game when they host the Badgers Wednesday in the final border battle of the regular season.

That game will mean a little more to Loewe, who is originally from Wisconsin. Loewe had a lot of friends and family come out to support him in the first meeting in Wisconsin. Wednesday should be very similar.

“I’m sure a lot of people will be coming here to support, but yeah, I’m looking forward to that one, again. Get another crack at them, I’m excited,” Loewe said.

After falling to Ohio State earlier in the week, the Gophers men’s basketball team continued their road trip to Penn State hoping for a quick rebound to get back into the win column. Unable to turn their luck around, Minnesota shouldered a second consecutive loss.

The Gophers ran into first-half issues against the Nittany Lions, scoring just 19 points on 33.3% shooting from the floor. Penn State had a very similar second half that Ohio State did, and ran away with the game for a 67-46 win.

Penn State and Minnesota met for the second time in just five days Thursday due to a cancellation in the middle of January. After Minnesota took the first meeting to end a five-game win streak, the Nittany Lions took the second meeting.

In their last match-up, redshirt senior Eric Curry had a career night and dominated Penn State for a career-high 22 points. He went 0-6 in the game and scored just one point. That meant scoring needed to come from elsewhere.

Sophomore Jamison Battle took over the Gophers’ scoring problems and dropped a team-high 16 points including three deep balls. Outside of Battle, there wasn’t much other production coming from Minnesota.

The Gophers finally started to get more shots to drop, and even hit four of five from deep in just over a three minute stretch. That didn’t last long as Minnesota ended the game shooting 32.1% from the field and 36.8% from deep.

Senior Payton Willis matched his game total from Minnesota’s previous loss with the Gophers’ first five points of the game. For the next five minutes, nothing was dropping for the Gophers and the Nittany Lions went on a 10-0 run to take a 16-5 lead and force a timeout from head coach Ben Johnson.

Senior Eylijah Stephens and Battle came alive for a brief stint following that timeout. The two scored Minnesota’s next 11 points to cut the deficit to just five.

That was the closest the game got, and the Gophers found themselves on the wrong side of yet another double-digit loss.

Minnesota is back at home Saturday as they host Northwestern in its first game of the regular season.

Minnesota took a two-point lead going into halftime after a very sloppy first 20 minutes. The Gophers repeated their efforts in the second half, while Ohio State flew right past and took a 70-45 win Tuesday night.

After a hot start from sophomore Jamison Battle, he struggled the rest of the way and finished just 4-13 from the field. He wasn’t alone in the disappointing outing. Minnesota as a team shot 30.8% and made just five of 19 shots from deep.

After that first-half lead, everything went downhill for the Gophers. Ohio State forced eight second-half turnovers that led to 16 points, which was the biggest difference in the two halves.

The Buckeyes were also a lot more careful with the ball, and after eight first-half turnovers, they finished with just 10.

Minnesota got dominated in the paint from the get-go from junior E.J. Liddell who scored a game-high 16 points. As a team, the Buckeyes doubled the Gophers points in the paint 28-14.

Battle opened things up and hit his first two shots from deep to give the Gophers an early lead. Neither team was seeing many shots drop in the front end of the opening half, and senior Payton Willis fell subject to that. He finished the game with just five points on 2-11 shooting.

The Gophers went on a 10-0 run to grab a six-point lead over a five-minute span, but couldn’t grow a bigger lead due to missed opportunities. Willis missed his first five shots of the game, and Minnesota struggled to get balls to drop.

It was a sloppy game from both teams in the first half on both shooting and turnovers. The Buckeyes turned the ball over eight times, and the Gophers turned that into eight points. Ohio State turned five Minnesota turnovers into just two points. Neither team shot over 41% and the Buckeyes went just 1-8 from deep.

The Gophers have a quick turnaround due to a COVID-19 postponement earlier in the season and will be on the road against Penn State on Thursday. Minnesota just beat the Nittany Lions to break a five-game losing streak under a week ago.

Redshirt senior Eric Curry scored a career-high 22 points in his sixth season to jolt the Gophers men’s basketball team to a 76-70 win over Penn State. A second-half burst from Minnesota’s guards was enough to end a five-game losing streak.

Curry was dominant Saturday night, while seniors Payton Willis, Luke Loewe and Eylijah Stephens came alive in the second half and got the job done down the stretch.

With under four minutes remaining, Loewe scored a layup to propel an 11-3 run to close out the game. Stephens came in clutch, hitting five of six from the free-throw line down the stretch.

It was a back and forth contest throughout the night with neither team being able to grab ahold of the game. Penn State and Minnesota saw 13 different lead changes throughout the Big Ten battle.

Minnesota had one of its worst turnover games of the season in its loss to Ohio State earlier in the week, against the Nittany Lions, it turned the ball over just three times. On the other end, the Gophers turned 13 turnovers into 26 points.

Curry’s 22 points were the story of the night, but it was the guard push down the stretch that got the job done. Willis was efficient from deep, hitting three of four from deep on his way to 18 points. He also was making plays around him and came down with another double-double dishing out 10 assists.

Willis had another quiet first half, scoring just five of his 18 points. Loewe was in a similar boat, scoring just two points in the opening half. He got himself into double figures as well, scoring nine more in the second half, but failed to hit on any of his three deep balls.

The Gophers have consistently been getting beaten on the glass, but that didn’t come back on them on  Saturday. Penn State out-rebounded Minnesota 36-21, but just merely beat them on the second-chance points.

Minnesota has a busy schedule in the coming week and will face Ohio State Tuesday on the road and try and get a winning streak going.

The Gophers men’s basketball team was responsible for handing the Nebraska Cornhuskers its first conference win Wednesday night. The Cornhuskers led the whole game and gave Minnesota trouble en route to a 78-65 win.

This time, a double-digit deficit was too much for the Gophers to overcome at any point of the game. Not much was going right for head coach Ben Johnson and Minnesota’s offense. The Cornhuskers saw its lead grow to as many as 20 points.

A combination of first-half issues led to another double-digit deficit against Nebraska, who are the only team below Minnesota in the Big Ten conference standings. Sophomore Jamison Battle was held scoreless and senior Payton Willis scored two points as Minnesota went into the half down 32-21.

Battle came alive in the second half, but it was too little, too late. After not making a shot, Battle got hot and hit five three-pointers on his way to a team-high 21 points. Willis added nine more points in the second half as well.

The Gophers average 9.4 turnovers a game, third in the Big Ten, but ran into a turnover problem 15 minutes into the game. With just under five minutes left in the first half, senior Luke Loewe committed his third turnover of the game. That brought the team’s total to 10, and that number continued to climb.

When all was said and done, the Gophers turned the ball over 18 times total, and Nebraska made them pay. The Cornhuskers scored 25 points off those turnovers and had 21 fast-break points compared to just two for Minnesota.

That wasn’t the only issue for Minnesota in the first half. The Gophers came into Wednesday shooting 36.4% from deep, the fifth best in the conference. Five shooters combined to miss all nine three-point attempts in the first half.

In the second half, Minnesota finally figured out the deep ball. Again, it was too little too late, but the team shot 7-12 from deep, with many thanks to Battle.

The Gophers are back at home Saturday when they face Penn State and look to get back on track.

The Iowa Hawkeyes called a timeout with under two seconds remaining in the first half with hopes of taking a lead going into the half. Senior Luke Loewe intercepted the pass at halfcourt and heaved a shot at the buzzer that banked in and gave Minnesota a four-point lead going into the half.

The Gophers had a solid hold on the game throughout the first half. Behind a strong three-point shooting half, Minnesota went into the half up 38-34. The second half was a different story as the Gophers offense stalled, while the Hawkeyes ended the game on a 26-5 stretch over the final 12 minutes to win 71-59.

Loewe scored a team-high 19 points while shooting 7-9 from the field and 4-5 from deep. Sophomore Jamison Battle had a game he’s probably going to want to forget, putting up just two points on 1-12 shooting.

Minnesota’s second-half fallout allowed the Hawkeyes to outscore them by 16. After posting a 48.4% from the field and 55.6% from deep in the first, the Gophers shot at a sub-30% rate in both metrics in the second half.

Turnovers from Minnesota have been one of its strong suits this season, but Sunday, the Gophers turned the ball over 12 times which Iowa turned into 21 points.

Minnesota stays on the road for its next contest when they travel to Nebraska on Wednesday to face the Cornhuskers as the Gophers look for their third win.

Size and shooting was the story behind a Wednesday night loss at the hands of No. 4 Purdue. In front of a crowded student section, a 7-foot-4 sophomore from Toronto, Ontario gave Minnesota problems in all aspects of the game. The Gophers fought back numerous times, but Purdue came out on top 88-73.

“We’re just continuing to build. Even in wins, [we’re] still finding ways to build to keep it going in the right direction,” head coach Ben Johnson said. “That’s our challenge the rest of the year, to win and to build and to grow each and every day.”

Minnesota continues to show resilience game after game. Even when the odds are against them, and they find themselves down double digits, they continue to fight. Wednesday night, Purdue was just the better overall team.

Zach Edey was dominant on both sides of the ball. He got senior Charlie Daniels out of the game with three fouls before the first five minutes of the game, led the game in rebounds with 12 and forced double and triple teams while in the paint that led to open three-pointers all night.

“[Edey] got both Eric [Curry] and Charlie [Daniels] in foul trouble, so that definitely had an effect on the game,” senior Payton Willis.

The Boilermakers also came out of the gate red hot, hitting on all of their first eight shots. After that perfect start, Purdue missed its next seven shots and Minnesota came back to within four.

Purdue got back on track and quickly got a double-digit lead. Just as Minnesota looked to get momentum going into half, sophomore Jaden Ivey hit a three to take a 15-point lead into the break 51-36.

That 18-point deficit was cut all the way back to within seven, as the Gophers got stops and freshman Treyton Thompson scored five straight points with both Daniels and redshirt senior Eric Curry on the bench with four fouls.

That was the closest Minnesota got as the Boilermakers once again erased the Gopher momentum and started drilling shots and getting stops.

Sophomore Jamison Battle did his job early in the game to try and keep the game tight, connecting on a pair of threes to go for a team-high 12 points in the first. In the second half, Willis came alive.

The duo did all they could against a skilled opponent, but their 45 combined points weren’t enough. Willis scored a game-high 24 points and picked up 10 assists for a double-double, Battle scored 21 as both played all 40 minutes.

“I think it’s just competing on both ends of the floor. I thought we competed offensively tonight, and I thought at times that we competed on defense. But it’s just about putting it together for that full 40 [minutes],” Battle said.

Ivey scored a team-high 21 points with 10 rebounds while Edey dropped 14 points with 12 boards in just 27 minutes. As a team, Purdue shot 55.6% from the field and outrebounded the Gophers 39-23.

“I’ve told our guys, ‘we got eight losses, and all eight have been to top-30 net teams’. Now the challenge is going to be: Are you going to be able to use every lesson that we’ve learned from these losses to now try and snowball them into wins,” Johnson said.

The Gophers head back to the road for two games against Iowa on Sunday and Nebraska the following week on Wednesday. Minnesota lost to the Hawkeyes in their first matchup in the middle of January, but its contest against the Cornhuskers will be the one and only meeting of the year.

It was the first border battle of the season between the rival No. 11 Wisconsin Badgers and the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Senior Payton Willis tried to lead a comeback effort with a game-high 17 points, but sophomore standout Johnny Davis had other plans.

The Gophers were coming off a double-digit loss to Ohio State, a game in which they got out-rebounded 48-22 and allowed 20 offensive boards. The rebounding was much more balanced, but an offensive board by Davis with just over a minute left turned into a huge one.

Davis dominated on the boards and grabbed 15, including three offensive, to go along with 16 points to lead the Badgers to a 66-60 win.

Rebounding was clearly a point of interest from head coach Ben Johnson leading up to Sunday’s matinee. Though Minnesota went into the half down seven, they had the edge in rebounding 17-15. Wisconsin ultimately had a 32-30 edge by the final buzzer, but that Davis offensive rebound was the biggest of the game.

The Gophers were never out of this contest, even after being down nine points with just over six minutes left. Minnesota didn’t quit.

The Gophers went on an 11-2 run over the next four minutes to cut the lead to just two points. That was the closest the game would get, as Minnesota failed to score over the last 2:23 of the game.

After missing the previous three games with an ankle injury, redshirt senior Eric Curry returned to the lineup. Curry made an immediate impact on the court both on offense with his mid-range jumper and his presence in the paint on defense.

Curry provided eight points and six boards, but it was Willis who hit big shots down the stretch. Sophomore Jamison Battle had a quiet 14 points and wasn’t fully involved in the final minutes.

Minnesota is back at home on Wednesday as they host No. 6 Purdue, who is coming off a game-winning three from sophomore Jaden Ivey to beat No. 16 Ohio State.

Last week, the Gophers men’s basketball team ran into COVID issues amongst the team. That led to a postponement in the game against Penn State. Minnesota fell below the roster minimum in the Big Ten Conference, having less than seven scholarship players available.

Ahead of the home game against Rutgers, Minnesota was again shorthanded, but this time, met the minimum requirements. Though it was not specified as to what exactly caused each player to sit out, the Gophers were without three student-athletes: Redshirt senior Eric Curry, sophomore Jamison Battle and senior Eylijah Stephens.

All three athletes were out because of “either illness, COVID-19 health and safety protocols or injury,” the team announced before the game.

The shorthanded Gophers prevailed and picked up their first home Big Ten win of the season 68-65 against the Scarlet Knights. Senior Payton Willis led the team with a career-high 32 points while senior Luke Loewe scored 19 points alongside Willis.

“It’s all about what’s on the front of the jersey, and it’s all about you’re gonna compete every single day,” head coach Ben Johnson said about the shorthanded win Saturday.

The conference win was a huge accomplishment for Johnson and the Gophers. It could be an important game to look at down the stretch as the turning point for the team. After a perfect 9-0 record in non-conference play, the Gophers are just 2-5 in conference.

Minnesota has a tough week ahead, facing not one but two nationally top-ranked teams. On Thursday, the Gophers play host to No. 16 Ohio State who is currently ranked fourth in the Big Ten.

Sunday, the Gophers travel to Madison, Wis., to play No. 11 Wisconsin in the first of two border battles. The Badgers are tied for second in the conference, and are just a half-game behind No. 10 Michigan State.

It’s not confirmed if Minnesota will be back to full strength ahead of these tough matchups, but fans got a glimpse of what they need to do if circumstances don’t change.