Minnesota holds off Missouri State 74-69 in Puerto Rico

That lesson also applies to Butler basketball.

A personal 8-0 run by Missouri State’s Camyn Boone sparked a second-half rally by the Bears here Friday in the consolation round of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off, but Minnesota made four big free throws in crunch time to hang on for a 74-69 win. The Seminoles next face Auburn at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Through three games this season, the Owl have given up 43 offensive rebounds. However, against the Owls (1-2) during the game’s first half, the Bulldog offense was mostly just rare. But the Hurricanes had a 23-4 edge in points off turnovers, converting time and time again to earn a date with No. 22 Butler in the Tipoff final. The Bulldogs missed 9 of their first 10 shots and at one point trailed 21-9.

“His leadership is always huge”, Pitino said. “We responded to certainly getting popped there early and we responded in the right way”.

From wire-to-wire, Coach Jim Larranaga’s squad gave the Utes no room to breathe on the defensive end and were very efficient on the offensive end. With the whole team not firing on all cylinders like they had the first three games, Sheldon McClellan carried the team out of its’ slump and helped the Hurricanes pull away from the Utes.

Fran Dunphy, Temple’s head coach, is notorious for having his teams slow the game down, execute sets, and run plays. DeCosey also had 10 rebounds for his second career double-double…. King caught fire early with five 3-pointers in the first eight minutes of the game. He paced Butler with five assists.

“We kept fighting, found a few rhythm, and we just have to find a way”, Lusk said. “He didn’t shoot it great today, but that threat is there”.

Butler: Dunham finished with 11 points on 4-for-4 shooting, and Jones had six points and 10 rebounds…. “I talked to both guys after the game…I was disappointed in the way we finished the game with both of them in, because in my opinion if we didn’t have the performance from either one of them we would not have been in the winner’s circle”. However, that doesn’t mean that he didn’t contribute.

Carlos Morris added 12 points for the Gophers (3-1), who led by 13 at halftime and quickly increased that margin in what appeared to be a developing blowout.

Lewis continually penetrated the lane and when the Missouri State helped arrived, he saw cutting teammates for what he called “easy assists”. When asked if his players would have any fun Saturday on their day off, he said, “I think I’m going to tie them all up in the hotel… and starve ’em”.

“That obviously is a real good team that we took a shellacking from tonight”.

Temple shot just nine free throws to Butler’s 25, and the Bulldogs had a 13-point advantage at the foul line… (The lack of assists) aren’t really frustrating at all. More Information For more on college basketball, follow Tom Davis on Twitter at Tom101010.