Men’s basketball: Gophers second-half surge leads to 84-78 win at Northwestern

Minnesota outscored the Wildcats by six in the second half to produced a 84-78 win at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Ill.

Before the restart of Big Ten play, the Gophers (9-5, 2-1 Big Ten) were 0-5 away from Williams Arena this season and were a 5-point underdog at Northwestern (8-6, 0-3).

The top two leading scorers in the Big Ten — Minnesota’s Cade Tyson and Northwestern’s Nick Martinelli — squared off Saturday and both filled it up in the second half. Martinelli had a game-high 26, while Tyson had a team-high 24.

Minnesota also got season scoring highs from Grayson Grove and Isaac Asuma; Ausma had 18 and Grove 12.

Langston Reynolds distributed a career-high 13 assists.

The Gophers used an 8-0 run to take a 68-67 lead with 3:25 remaining; it was their first lead since 43-42 early in the second half.

During the run, Grove was rewarded with cuts to the basket and spacing to have three straight dunks.

The Gophers and Wildcats were tied at 34-34 in a very even opening half that had seven ties and four lead changes.

In the fruit half, Asuma led the way with 11 points off three treys. Jaylen Crocker-Johnson got in foul trouble, but reserve  Grove started to step in.