Ankle injury slows Gophers guard Brennan Rigsby in loss to Wake Forest

ORLANDO, FLA. — Senior Brennan Rigsby was almost the Thanksgiving day hero when his three-pointer just missed at the buzzer in the Gophers basketball team’s overtime loss vs. Wichita State.

But Rigsby spent most of the second half on the bench in Friday’s 57-51 loss to Wake Forest.

The starting 6-3 guard is averaging 7.3 points this year, but he finished with just two points in 15 minutes, only playing three minutes in the second half after tweaking his ankle earlier in the game.

Gophers coach Ben Johnson told the Star Tribune that Rigsby didn’t appear to be seriously hurt, but it wasn’t worth risking further injury in a back-and-forth affair.

“I don’t think it’s serious,” Johnson said. “I knew he tweaked it. I knew that at halftime. Just watching him out there for the first [few] minutes, he just wasn’t moving right. In a game like this you just don’t want him out there.”

Without Rigsby on the floor, the Gophers relied mostly on seniors Lu’Cye Patterson and Femi Odukale and freshman Isaac Asuma in the backcourt. They all looked fatigued late in the game. Patterson (team-high 12 points and four assists) and Odukale played all 20 minutes in the second half. Asuma had six of his career-high 11 points in 17 second-half minutes.

“Brennan got hurt, but I hope he’s doing better,” Asuma said. “We need him back. He’s a great player, but my teammates just filled me with confidence. They know what I can do. All the coaches filled me with confidence and told me, ‘Go do your thing. Go play your game.’ And that just really helps me.”

It’s the elephant in the room when it comes to the Gophers this season, but wretched free-throw shooting is obviously making it hard for them to win close games.

Entering Friday against Wake Forest, the Gophers ranked 341st nationally and 17th among Big Ten teams at 61.8% in free-throw percentage. In the conference, only Washington was worse, at 60%.

“We’ve got to mentally get over that hump,” Johnson said.

In two games in Orlando, the Gophers shot a combined 15-for-32 (46.9%) from the foul line, including 6-for-15 on Friday. In comparison, Minnesota’s opponents in Florida were a combined 24-for-30 (80%), including Wake Forest going 14-for-16.

“Some of those are momentum busters,” Johnson said. “Where you’re about to go on a run or you want to stop a run and you don’t get two [free throws] or one. But then when you’re getting them, you have to capitalize, especially in a one-possession game until the very end.”

The Gophers thought senior guard Mike Mitchell Jr. would possibly be able to play soon, but he missed his sixth straight game Friday while recovering from an ankle injury.

Mitchell, who averaged a team-high six assists in two starts this season, warmed up for the first time since the Nov. 9 injury before Thursday’s game against Wichita State. But the California native was in street clothes on the bench Friday. His status is still questionable for Sunday’s game vs. Bethune-Cookman.

“He’s getting really, really close,” Johnson said. “I wanted him to warm up yesterday to see how it felt more than anything. We knew he was probably going to be questionable today. ... Hopefully, a couple days off and you never know.”