Gophers men’s basketball loses to Ohio State 89-88 in double overtime

Gophers coach Ben Johnson faced the worst-case scenario with his team’s first Big Ten win this season on the line Monday night against Ohio State.

A two-point lead and leading scorer Dawson Garcia were gone in an instant after he fouled out with 5.4 seconds left in the second half.

Even with that dire situation, the Gophers had chances to pull out the win, but missed free throws and poor late-game decisions led to a tough-to-swallow 89-88 double overtime loss Monday against the Buckeyes in front of an announced crowd of 7,611 at Williams Arena.

The Gophers (8-7, 0-4) saw Parker Fox, Lu’Cye Patterson and Isaac Asuma post career highs in maroon and gold to combine for 59 points. But Johnson said going 12-for-27 on free throws was a big reason why they remain the only winless team left in conference play. Ohio State shot 29-for-32 at the foul line.

“That’s a hurt locker room,” Johnson said. “You’ve got an opportunity right there to just kind of back everything you’ve been preaching and talking. Everything that those guys have been listening to and trying to apply. It’s just hard when you don’t reap the rewards of all of that.”

The Buckeyes (10-5, 2-2), who beat No. 4 Kentucky at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 21, avenged an 88-79 loss last year in Minneapolis after an 8-0 run to start the second overtime gave them enough cushion to escape. Devin Royal and Bruce Thornton led five Ohio State players in double figures with 19 and 18 points, respectively.

Garcia, who didn’t score his first points of the game until a three-pointer around the 14-minute mark in the second half, was held to five points in 29 minutes. Another starter, Femi Odukale also ended up sidelined but with bruised ribs. He fell awkwardly off the raised floor and behind the basket on a missed layup three minutes into the second half.

Fox’s baseline runner sent the crowd into an uproar to give the Gophers a 72-68 lead with under a minute left in the first overtime. That might have been enough on any other night, but this was a game that included 24 lead changes.

“You take it on the chin,” said Fox, who had a team-high 21 points. “You take it as a group of men, and you got to find a way to get a solution from it. I hate saying that over and over again, but it’s the truth. There’s no other way around it.”

After Ohio State’s Micah Parrish was called for a travel late in the first overtime, Asuma made the second of two free throws to extend it to a 73-70 advantage with 9.4 seconds left.

BOXSCORE: Ohio State 89, Gophers 88 (2OT)

Big Ten standings

Johnson’s frustration grew when Kadyn Betts mistakenly fouled Ohio State’s John Mobley after the Buckeyes grabbed the second missed free throw, which led to the tying free throws to force a second OT.

In the second half, Asuma’s third three-pointer gave the Gophers their largest lead at 59-52 with just under six minutes left, but Ohio State went on a 10-3 run to tie it.

With the score 62-62 in regulation, Garcia missed two free throws with less than two minutes to play, but his teammates seemingly bailed him out. Fox’s steal on the ensuing possession led to an uncontested dunk for Garcia for a two-point lead.

That seemed to end it until a late turnover gave the Buckeyes the chance to steal the victory with the botched defensive rotation that led to Garcia fouling out.

Johnson was hoping to see the Gophers get what he called a “breakthrough win” soon. They lost to Michigan State, Indiana and Purdue by an average of nearly 18 points per game to open the conference slate, but they never had a chance like they did Monday.