Tre Williams scored 14 points and Jamal Mashburn Jr. added 11, and Minnesota snapped a seven-game skid with a 51-46 win over Northwestern in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament on Wednesday.
The Golden Gophers advance to take on fifth-seeded and ninth-ranked Ohio State on Thursday.
Minnesota pulled out the win despite shooting 36.7% (18 of 49) and making just 10 of 24 (41.7%) from the foul line.
Down the stretch, however, the Wildcats didn’t help their cause. After taking a 46-39 lead with 4:20 to go, they never scored again.
Despite a 3-for-10 shooting effort, Minnesota’s Marcus Carr drained back-to-back fadeaway jumpers and 2 of 3 foul shots in a 90-second span, and the Gophers led 49-46 with 72 seconds left.
Carr finished with 10 points, Eric Curry grabbed a career-high 12 rebounds and Brandon Johnson snared 10 boards for Minnesota.
After a slow start, Northwestern gradually whittled its way back and took its first lead at 40-38 on Miller Kopp’s jumper with 7:02 left. Kopp led Northwestern with nine points.
Both Gach made a 3-pointer and a jump shot and Mashburn made a layup and a jumper as Minnesota (14-14) built a 16-2 advantage.
Despite missing 23 of 31 shots in the half, Northwestern (9-15) outscored Minnesota 11-6 in the last 4:16 of the half to reduce its deficit to 27-20 at halftime.
Minnesota entered the tournament as the 13th seed and the Wildcats were No. 12. Northwestern finished the conference season 6-13 and the Gophers were 6-14. Northwestern won 67-59 in Minneapolis in the lone regular-season meeting.
The Gophers improved to 6-2 against Northwestern in Big Ten Tournament play.
Penn State pulls away from Nebraska 72-66
Jamari Wheeler scored a career-high 19 points, and No. 11 seed Penn State pulled away in the last four minutes to beat 14th-seeded Nebraska 72-66 in Wednesday night’s other first-round Big Ten Tournament game.
Penn State (11-13) has won four of its last five and plays sixth-seeded Wisconsin in the second round Thursday.
With the score tied at 59 with 3:48 remaining, John Harrar made a free throw and Myles Dread hit a 3-pointer to spark a 13-7 closing run by the Nittany Lions, who trailed 37-23 at the break.
Myreon Jones and Izaiah Brockington added 14 points apiece for Penn State. Sam Sessoms had 11 points. Wheeler and Jones combined for six of the Nittany Lions’ seven 3-pointers. Harrar matched career highs with 14 rebounds and four assists.
Trey McGowens scored 13 points for Nebraska (7-20). Indianapolis native and Western Illinois transfer Kobe Webster and Thorir Thorbjarnarson added 12 points each.
Penn State opened the second half on a 15-2 run and took their its lead since the opening bucket at 51-50 with 9:27 to play.
The teams split the regular-season series by a combined four points. The Nittany Lions are 3-0 against Nebraska in the conference tournament.