Gophers crater in second half of an 80-59 loss to Wisconsin

Ben Johnson could have faced accusations of stealing silver linings after an 0-4 start to Big Ten play. After a loss to Ohio State this week, the Gophers men’s basketball coach pointed out how each defeat came with a steady, incremental improvement.

And for what it’s worth, he was right.

The conference opener against Michigan State in December was poor, but the first road game at Indiana was a bit better. Once league play restarted in January, the matchup with then-No. 20 Purdue was two-thirds full before a late collapse, and the Ohio State game went to double overtime on Monday.

The gulf started out a mile wide and shrank to inches, but each game still ended in defeat.

On Friday night, the gap was ripped wide open again with an 80-59 loss to Wisconsin at Kohl Center in Madison.

Minnesota (8-8, 0-5 Big Ten) led 31-30 early in the second half, but the 12.5-point underdog allowed the Badgers to go on a 13-2 run to make it 43-33 over the next 3 minutes.

It didn’t stop there. Wisconsin outscored Minnesota 50-30 after halftime.

At one point during the slide, a group of upperclassmen Gophers huddled up on the court before foul shots as if to come up with something to help stop the bleeding. Nobody appeared to say anything, and a few looked up to watch the replay of Steven Crowl’s basket seconds earlier.

Wisconsin (13-3, 3-2) extended its winning streak in the rivalry to eight straight since 2020.

To start Friday, Minnesota took a 15-5 lead through the first five minutes, but Wisconsin got it right back with a 13-2 run to take an 18-17 lead. The U had four turnovers over a six-minute span.

After foul trouble and bad shooting against the Buckeyes, Minnesota’s leading scorer Dawson Garcia started hot with 14 points on 6-of-12 shooting along with eight rebound in the first half. He finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds.

Femi Odukale shook off his bruised his ribs injury suffered in a scary fall off the raised floor at Williams Arena on Monday. He had eight points, seven rebounds and three assists in his 16 first-half minutes. But he didn’t add a rebound or an assist in the second half.

Gophers second-leading scorer Mike Mitchell went missing for big stretches of the game and finished with five points on 2-of 7-shooting.

After a career-high 18 points against the Buckeyes, guard Isaac Asuma showed a freshman’s inconsistency with no points, four fouls and three turnovers.