Akeem Springs blamed himself for the Gophers' demoralizing 85-78 loss Saturday against No. 22 Maryland, because he felt like he didn't do enough to lead his team down the stretch.

But the 6-foot-4, 220-pound senior scored a season-best 23 points on 9-for-15 shooting, which included 14 of his steam's 18 points during one stretch to answer the Terrapins.

"To pull out tough games like this your seniors have to step up," said Springs, who talked about mistakes defensively costing his team the game.

First off, Springs is the only senior who has a contributing role for this team on the floor.

Secondly, it was a valiant move for Springs to take responsibility for the Gophers getting outplayed down the stretch, instead of throwing his teammates under the bus.

But this fifth straight loss wasn't his fault.

Springs is averaging 18 points on 51.3 percent shooting from the field (20-for-39) and 45 percent from three-point range (9-for-20) since being put in the starting lineup three games ago.

"I don't think it was one person's fault," Gophers coach Richard Pitino said. "It's a little bit of everyone. It's a team defense type deal."

Every player that saw the floor for Minnesota should be blamed for putrid defense in the second half, allowing Maryland to get dribble penetration off ball screens at will and shoot 64.5 percent, while making seven of its 11 three-pointers in the second half.

Springs must also feel frustrated about not getting the ball in crunch time when he clearly was on a roll earlier in the second half. He scored 14 points after halftime, but he went scoreless in the last 5:56.

Why? Springs didn't even get another shot attempt until 17 seconds remaining on a 25-foot three-pointer with his team already down 83-78.

Pitino was asked why Springs didn't get the ball late in the game.

"I don't know," he said. "He shot 15 shots. That's a pretty good number. I just think it came down to the last minute and a half more than anything."

The Gophers are 2-25 under Pitino the last two seasons when trailing with five minutes left, including 1-4 this season. That's beyond disturbing with more close games surely to come in the last nine.

Minnesota went 3-for-8 from the field and 4-for-7 from the foul line with two turnovers in the last 5:04 after the game was tied 67-67 Saturday. In that span, Nate Mason shot 1-for-3 from the field; Eric Curry went 1-for-2; Jordan Murphy went 1-for-1. But two of the team's best scorers, Amir Coffey and Springs, took just one shot each and missed.

In fact, Coffey, who had all of his 11 points in the first half, only took two shots in the last six minutes of the game, and he had zero attempts in the final 4:38. Not a good sign.

Not only did the Gophers lose the game defensively, but they clearly weren't getting their best offensive players shots when it mattered most. With a week off until the next game at Illinois on Feb. 4, maybe that will be time to draw up plays for Coffey and Springs late in games.

NO DUPREE: Sophomore guard Dupree McBrayer came off the bench for the third straight game Saturday. He scored 14 points in his first game as a reserve in a loss last weekend against Wisconsin.

But McBrayer has just nine points on 4-for-12 shooting in his last two games. He averaged 30 minutes a game while starting the first 19 games. But McBrayer played a season-low 16 minutes against Maryland, including just five minutes in the second half.

Pitino didn't mention McBrayer being injured in the game, but the New York native sat for the last 10:58 after coming down awkwardly out of bounds after a missed layup.

POST PRODUCTION: The Gophers were 4-0 this season when their starting frontline of Murphy and Reggie Lynch scored double figures in the same game.

But they couldn't pull out the victory Saturday when it happened.

Murphy snapped a six-game slump scoring under double figures. He had 10 points on 3-for-6 shooting, along with four rebounds and two blocks in 25 minutes.

Lynch had just his second double-double this season and first double-figure rebounding performance in 11 games with 10 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks before fouling out. His four turnovers were a season-high.

Lynch's 66 blocks this season leads the Big Ten and is the ninth-best single-season performance in school history. He's on pace to set the U single-season record of 87 by legend Randy Breuer in 1982-83.