Minnesota Pulls Away In 2nd Half For 69-61 Win
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Reserve guard Chip Armelin scored 15 points and Minnesota took advantage of Nebraska's poor shooting in the second half to pull away for a 69-61 victory on Sunday.
Maverick Ahanmisi converted a three-point play and Andre Hollins made a 3-pointer at the start of a 9-0 burst that broke a tie and put Minnesota (17-7, 5-6 Big Ten) up 48-39 with 7:22 left.
Nebraska (11-11, 3-8) led 33-32 at halftime, but went 2 for 16 to start the second half and had a stretch of 6½ minutes without a field goal.
Toney McCray's 3 ended Nebraska's field-goal drought and made it a six-point game. But the Gophers extended their lead to double digits when Armelin threaded an underhand pass along the baseline to Ahanmisi for a layup.
Nebraska, out of timeouts the last 3:52, got no closer than seven points the rest of the way.
Bo Spencer had 18 points, Toney McCray 15 and Brandon Richardson 10 for the Huskers. Nebraska played without center Jorge Brian Diaz, who sat on the bench in warm-ups because of chronic soreness in his feet.
The Gophers shot 67 percent in the second half and 54 percent for the game, and held a 31-24 rebounding advantage.
The Huskers, who shot 59 percent in the first half, made only 31 percent from the floor in the second half to end up at 44 percent.
Minnesota's bench outscored Nebraska's 40-7.
A flurry of action in the last minute of the first half appeared to give Nebraska some momentum heading to the locker room.
Richardson swiped the ball from Joe Coleman to start a fast break that Spencer helped finish by lofting a high pass that Caleb Walker flushed for a dunk to make it 30-all with 16 seconds left.
After a timeout, Minnesota's Oto Osenieks stormed to the basket for a dunk. Nebraska rushed the ball up court, and Walker hit a 3-pointer from the wing for a one-point lead.
The Huskers led by eight points in the middle of the half, but the Gophers hit three straight 3s for a 9-0 run that tightened things up.
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