Gophers men’s basketball team, powered by Dawson Garcia, pulls off huge comeback at UCLA

Legendary coach John Wooden roamed the sidelines and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was still known as Lew Alcindor the last time the Gophers men’s basketball team played UCLA in Los Angeles before this week.

That was a different era of college basketball, when the Bruins won a record seven straight NCAA titles under Wooden.

The first-ever Big Ten matchup between the Gophers and UCLA on Tuesday saw two teams on different ends of the conference standings battle late into the night.

After trailing by 17 points in the first half, the Gophers overcame a sloppy start to finish their West Coast road trip undefeated with a thrilling 64-61 win against the Bruins at Pauley Pavilion.

“I have a ton of respect for that program,” Gophers coach Ben Johnson said in the postgame news conference. “We knew we were going to have to play beyond our best to come in here and have a chance.”

Dawson Garcia, who scored 27 of his 32 points in the second half, sank two free throws with less than a second remaining to seal it for the Gophers (14-12, 6-9 Big Ten), who joined Big Ten leader Michigan as the only conference teams to win at UCLA and USC this season.

“It’s a great emotion just to share it with guys who put everything into it,” said Garcia, who shot 7-for-10 from the field and 11-for-12 from the foul line in the second half. “I’m super happy for my teammates, the coaches, the university and just blessed to be in this position.”

Lu’Cye Patterson was the hero in Saturday’s 69-66 comeback from 14 points down to upset the Trojans — and he came through again when his team needed him Tuesday.

Patterson, who finished with 11 points, helped the Gophers take their first lead of the game on a layup with 56 seconds to play.

After UCLA responded to take a one-point lead on a basket from Sebastian Mack, Patterson drove past his defender and tossed up a heavily contested shot off the glass. The go-ahead bucket made it 62-61 with four seconds left.

UCLA’s Tyler Bilodeau and Eric Daily missed four straight throws to leave the door open for the Gophers, who outscored UCLA 15-4 in the last four minutes.

On Saturday, the Gophers overcame a 10-point second-half deficit behind Patterson’s season-high 25 points, including 19 points in the second half.

Garcia again carried his team after halftime Tuesday night. The 6-11 senior got back on track after scoring just 19 points combined on 7-for-24 shooting in the previous two games, including seven points at USC.

“It was really just resilience and resolve and believing in our team,” Garcia said. “We took their best shot, and we were still standing. … We knew once we started making shots that if we continued to play defense that things would open up and we would eventually come out with the win.”

The Gophers made 10 of their 16 turnovers in the first half Tuesday and trailed 29-12. It seemed like the Bruins would pull away at that point, but Garcia capped an 11-2 Minnesota run with a steal and dunk to cut it under double figures momentarily before the Gophers trailed 34-23 at halftime.

UCLA (19-8, 10-6) had won eight of nine games and entered Tuesday with a chance to give coach Mick Cronin his 500th career victory. It seemed likely when Skyy Clark gave the Bruins a 57-49 cushion with 4:18 to play, but they didn’t have an answer for Garcia and Patterson late.

Mike Mitchell Jr. also provided a lift, ending a seven-game stretch of scoring under double figures with 14 points on 4-for-10 shooting from beyond the arc.

“We talk a lot about, this time of the year you want to be playing your best basketball,” Johnson said. “We’ve been playing pretty good basketball leading up to this point. Now to be able to stamp it with two really good wins, unbelievable wins, for us is a good sign.”

Now 12th in the Big Ten standings, the Gophers are in better position to finish in the top 15 in the conference and qualify for the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis.

The Gophers return home with a huge confidence boost before back-to-back games at Williams Arena. They host Penn State on Saturday and Northwestern next Tuesday.

“When you can go on the road and get two wins, that’s huge, that’s great momentum,” Johnson said. “Now we got to be a mature team and handle business when we get back home.”