Dawson Garcia had 18 points and 13 rebounds to lead Minnesota to a 78-75 win over Nebraska in a first-round Big Ten tournament game in Chicago on Wednesday.
Ta’Lon Cooper added 16 points and 12 assists for the Golden Gophers (9-21).
Keisei Tominaga scored 23 points and Sam Griesel had 16 points and 12 rebounds in defeat for Nebraska (16-16).
Minnesota held a 74-71 lead with 27.1 seconds remaining, but Tominaga hit a layup with 20.5 seconds left to make it 74-73.
Cooper then hit two free throws with 18.4 seconds left to give Minnesota a 76-73 lead before Griesel hit two free throws with 12.7 seconds remaining to cut Minnesota’s lead to 76-75.
Cooper was again fouled with 7.2 seconds left, and he made one free throw to put Minnesota up 77-75.
Nebraska pushed the ball down the floor, but Griesel lost the ball out of bounds with 1.3 seconds remaining.
Following a free throw by Jaden Henley that gave Minnesota a 78-75 lead, Tominaga had one last chance to tie, but his half-court shot hit the heel of the rim and bounced off as time expired.
Leading 70-67 with 3:23 left, Minnesota took a 73-67 after three free throws by Henley with 3:01 remaining.
Nebraska responded, cutting Minnesota’s lead to 73-71 with 1:41 left after back-to-back baskets by Griesel.
With 9:01 remaining and Minnesota up 60-53, Minnesota’s second-leading scorer Jamison Battle fouled out of the game, and Golden Gophers head coach Ben Johnson got a technical foul arguing the call.
Nebraska then cut Minnesota’s lead to 60-57 after hitting the two technical foul free throws and two more free throws.
After leading 37-33 at halftime, Minnesota took a 50-39 lead with 15:57 remaining in the game after a 3-pointer by Henley.
The Golden Gophers led by as many as nine points in the first half at 34-25 with 3:14 remaining until halftime before Nebraska answered with six straight points to make it 34-31 with 1:21 to go in the first half.
–Field Level Media
