Four things learned from the Gophers men’s basketball victory at Nebraska

After senior Brennan Rigsby entered the game for the first time in the first half Saturday, the Gophers men’s basketball team looked like road warriors again.

Rigsby scored his first basket at the 13-minute mark. For the next 25 minutes, the Gophers had control and built a 19-point lead in the second half.

That lead vanished, but Rigsby started and ended strongly with his career-high 20 points — none more spectacular than the go-ahead three-pointer with 4.1 seconds left in the Gophers' 67-65 victory Saturday in Lincoln, Neb.

The Gophers' fifth Big Ten road win is tied for the program’s most in a season since 2016-17. Four consecutive league road victories are the most since their vacated 1996-97 Final Four season.

“The culture is we’re warriors, man,” Rigsby told the Big Ten Network while surrounded by teammates Saturday.

Not long after waving goodbye to Nebraska fans, Rigsby was swarmed by teammates to celebrate the much-needed victory that boosted the Gophers' chances to qualify for the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis.

“We knew it was going to come down to a couple 50-50 balls and a couple possessions at the end of the game,” Rigsby said. “We’re a tough team. We’re a family out there. We’re built for it.”

The Gophers (15-14, 7-11 Big Ten) are in a four-way tie with Nebraska, Northwestern and Rutgers in the conference standings after Saturday’s victory, putting them in 12th place with tiebreakers. They have two regular-season games left to remain in the top 15 in the Big Ten: Wednesday vs. No. 11 Wisconsin and next Sunday at Rutgers.

Here are four things learned from the U’s first-ever win at Pinnacle Bank Arena:

Opposing defenders can be caught off guard when Rigsby shows off his 40-inch vertical with a slam.

But the Colorado native has also delivered more than just highlight dunks for the Gophers and Oregon during his career. His teams have never lost and are 13-0 when he scores in double figures in three seasons. Wow.

Nebraska’s players probably didn’t know that Saturday when it came to Rigsby, who averaged 2.1 points in 9.6 minutes per game in league play.

The bouncy 6-3 guard scored just three points combined on 1-for-8 shooting in his previous four games, including three scoreless outings. But just before that, Rigsby contributed to a 69-61 victory Feb. 4 at Penn State with 14 points on 5-for-5 shooting.

Look even further back and Rigsby has started 10 games this season. He was trusted to attempt a potential game-winner that barely rimmed out in an overtime loss to Wichita State in Orlando over Thanksgiving.

“Brennan was phenomenal,” Gophers coach Ben Johnson said on BTN. “I give that kid so much credit. He has never changed. He comes to practice every single day with the same mindset. He gets up extra shots. He never wavers. That’s why he’s ready to step up when we really needed him.”

The Gophers wouldn’t have four straight road victories without Lu’Cye Patterson’s toughness down the stretch.

Patterson made clutch shots and plays late in wins at USC and UCLA last month.

On Saturday in Lincoln, the senior guard from Minneapolis was the only other Gophers player besides Rigsby in double figures with 16 points, including nine points in the second half.

Maybe the biggest play of the game was when Patterson dribbled past midcourt to find Rigsby open on the right wing for the game-winner.

Patterson appeared exhausted after the game, but he has been known to leave everything on the court. He bounced back from having 17 points combined in home losses to Penn State and Northwestern.

“He’s got a will and he’s got a fight, which we’ve all seen,” Johnson said. “He did not want to lose [Saturday]. He did everything humanly possible to will this team. His effort was phenomenal.”

The last thing the Gophers wanted to see at the end of Saturday’s win was their leading scorer, Dawson Garcia, sidelined with foul trouble and a sore ankle.

The 6-11 senior nailed his second three-pointer to put the Gophers up 47-28 earlier in the second half. But after Nebraska went on a 27-7 run, Garcia was too banged up to return for the final 2:11 in the game.

After blocking a shot against fellow Minnesotan Andrew Morgan with less than three minutes to play, Garcia started to limp. He barely made it up the court before leaving the game after Rigsby’s three-pointer made it 62-57 in favor of the Gophers.

“I think he tweaked it a little bit,” Johnson said Saturday. “We’ll get back and figure out what it was.”

Garcia, who finished with nine points on 3-for-9 shooting and added six rebounds in 29 minutes, is among the top scorers in the Big Ten with 19.3 points per game.

It doesn’t jump out in the boxscore, but Femi Odukale, Isaac Asuma and Frank Mitchell made a considerable impact on Saturday’s victory at Nebraska.

Odukale and Asuma struggled with nine turnovers, but they got their teammates involved with 10 assists combined. Their defense stood out the most to keep the Huskers from getting easy shots on the perimeter (4-for-16 shooting from three-point range).

Mitchell, who replaced Garcia in the middle late, also made his inside presence felt with eight points on 4-for-5 shooting and a team-high nine rebounds in a season-high-tying 24 minutes Saturday.