North Texas leads Minnesota most of the way, holds off Golden Gophers 54-51 to move to 3-0

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) Rondel Walker scored 14 points and undefeated North Texas led for most of the way and held off Minnesota for a 54-51 victory on Wednesday night.

Dawson Garcia scored six points during an 8-2 surge to pull Minnesota to 52-51 with 30 seconds left. Isaac Asuma blocked Brenen Lorient’s layup attempt on the ensuing possession, but Lu’Cye Patterson’s 3-point shot hit the back of the rim and the Mean Green's Johnathan Massie grabbed the rebound.

Following a North Texas timeout with 3 seconds to go, Lorient added a dunk and Patterson’s midcourt heave bounced off the backboard.

Lorient added nine points for the Mean Green.

Garcia shot 6 of 9 from the field, made all 10 of his free throws and finished with 24 points to lead Minnesota (2-1). He entered three points shy of 1,000 career points with the Golden Gophers, the first do so since Daniel Oturu in 2020. Garcia has 1,516 points overall.

Minnesota was 15-of-38 shooting (31%), committed 13 turnovers and missed seven (15 of 22) of its free-throw attempts. Patterson added nine points on 3-of-14 shooting.

Minnesota shot just 14% in the first half, missing 18 of 21 field goals and trailed 23-14 at the break. Brennan Rigsby hit a 3-pointer at the 15:41-mark and the Gophers didn't hit another field goal until Garcia's second-chance layup with 3:15 remaining in the half.

Rigsby's 3-pointer gave the Golden Gophers their only lead, 43-42, with 7:27 left in the game.

It was the first meeting between the teams.

--- Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP collegebasketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball