Cam Christie scored 20 points on 6-for-10 shooting, Pharrel Payne added 17 points on 7-for-9 shooting and Minnesota cruised to a 97-64 win over New Orleans on Thursday night in Minneapolis.
Dawson Garcia finished with 15 points and Mike Mitchell Jr. scored 14 for Minnesota (5-2), which bounced back from its most lopsided loss of the season Sunday at San Francisco. The Golden Gophers returned home to shoot 59.4 percent (38 of 64) from the field.
Khaleb Wilson-Rouse scored 19 points to lead New Orleans (3-4). Jordan Johnson finished with 17 points and six rebounds, but no other Privateer scored in double digits.
Minnesota finished with a 44-29 advantage in rebounds. The Golden Gophers’ bench outscored the Privateers’ bench 62-20.
New Orleans stayed competitive through the first eight-plus minutes. The Privateers pulled within 19-16 when Johnson made a jump shot off a pass from Omarion Henry.
Minnesota took control from that point forward. The Golden Gophers went on a 16-3 run to seize a 35-19 advantage with 6:59 remaining in the first half.
Braeden Carrington made a layup to finish off the scoring run, which included Garcia sinking a 3-pointer and a pair of layups.
A dunk by Payne with 1:03 left in the first half increased Minnesota’s advantage to 50-29. Wilson-Rouse drained a 3-pointer on the next possession to cut New Orleans’ deficit to 18 points entering the break.
The Golden Gophers maintained their dominance in the second half. A 3-pointer by Christie increased the lead to 73-41 with 11:55 remaining.
Johnson responded with a three-point play on the next time down the court for New Orleans, but by then the outcome was not in doubt. The Privateers fell behind by as many as 36 points in the game’s final five minutes.
Christie reached 20 points on a 3-pointer with 1:48 to go. It marked a career high for the true freshman, whose older brother Max Christie plays for the Los Angeles Lakers.
–Field Level Media