Gophers open the men’s basketball season with a victory over Oral Roberts and a loud effort from Dawson Garcia

Ben Johnson used nine different starting lineups last season for a 19-win Gophers men’s basketball team that returned most of its players. Imagine if they’d been mostly newcomers.

How long will it take the Gophers to figure out their best lineup this year?

Treating the rotation like musical chairs might again be the approach with nine newcomers, but making Dawson Garcia part of any unit makes all the difference.

The 6-11 senior scored 18 of his 30 points in the first half to help the Gophers open the season Wednesday night with an 80-57 victory against Oral Roberts at Williams Arena.

BOXSCORE: Gophers 80, Oral Roberts 57

It was the fourth career 30-point game for Garcia, who shot 11-for-14 and also had eight rebounds. The supporting cast just followed his lead.

“He’s just in a good rhythm,” Johnson said. “When he takes good shots, he takes rhythm shots, he doesn’t settle, then obviously he’s a really good player.”

The Gophers opened the game by taking a 29-8 lead, with Garcia using his height advantage in the paint but also hitting from long distance. He scored 16 points on 6-for-6 shooting, including 3-for-3 from three-point range.

“The work that I’ve put in, just falling back on that,” Garcia said. “It’s just second nature. I just felt like I was out there playing my game, playing loose and having fun.”

Life without Garcia wasn’t something Johnson wanted to think about yet when Garcia was considering his options in the offseason, including turning pro. Seven Gophers players transferred from last season, but Garcia, Mike Mitchell Jr. and Parker Fox were seniors committed to sticking around.

Oral Roberts cut a 21-point deficit in half when Garcia was on the bench before halftime. Fox eventually picked up the scoring slack, getting eight of his 13 points in the first half.

Early in the second half, the Golden Eagles trimmed the margin to 38-29, but Fox answered again with five points during a 7-0 run. After flying in for a layup, the 6-8 Mahtomedi native picked up a technical foul for flexing toward an opposing player. That became the last time the U’s momentum was stopped.

Garcia had eight points during a 15-3 run in the second half that put the game out of reach, including the former Prior Lake star’s fourth three-pointer for his 28th point. He shot 4-for-5 on three-pointers.

As easy as the Gophers made it seem when playing offense through Garcia, finding the best players to surround him will be a work in progress. The starting lineup also included Mitchell, Fox, Brennan Rigsby and Lu’Cye Patterson, who finished with 10 points.

Mitchell had a solid audition as the team’s new point guard with nine of the team’s 25 assists Wednesday.

“Just trying to do anything to help the team win,” Mitchell said. “[Patterson and Rigsby] are scorers who can pass, shoot and dribble, so they make my job easier.”

The most notable newcomer off the bench was Femi Odukale, who had six assists and four steals in his debut after missing two exhibition games because of a hip injury.

Mitchell, Odukale and others stood out in a team defensive effort that held Oral Roberts to 34.5% shooting and 7-for-23 on three-pointers.

Summit League preseason player of the year Issac McBride, who averaged 19.8 points last season, scored 15 points on 4-for-11 shooting.

Potential starting big man Frank Mitchell missed Wednesday’s game because of a shoulder injury, but he could possibly be back Saturday against Nebraska Omaha.

More help is coming for Garcia, but Gophers fans will have to watch how Johnson puts the rest of the pieces together.

“The chemistry is coming,” Garcia said. “We lost a good amount of guys. It took a little bit of time, but once we connected, I feel like everybody’s on the same page.”