Jaden Henley scored 16 points to lead Minnesota to a 72-54 home win over St. Francis Brooklyn on Friday.
Pharrell Payne had 12 points and eight rebounds, Joshua Ola-Joseph scored 12 points and Dawson Garcia had 11 points and eight rebounds for Minnesota (2-0).
The Golden Gophers played without last year’s returning scorer, Jamison Battle, who is recovering from foot surgery.
Minnesota shot 55.1% from the field overall (27 of 49) and outrebounded the Terriers by a 36-26 margin.
St. Francis Brooklyn shot 40.4% from the field overall (23 of 57), but was 25% from 3-point range (5 of 20) and shot just seven free throws in the game, making three of them.
Trey Quartlebaum came off of the bench to score 10 points and Tedrick Wilcox, Jr. scored eight points to lead St. Francis Brooklyn (1-1).
The Golden Gophers led 37-28 at halftime and built their lead quickly in the second half.
Minnesota started the half on an 8-2 run to take a 45-30 lead with 17:32 remaining in the game, and then went up 49-32 with 15:33 left.
The Golden Gophers then went on a 9-2 surge from there to take a 58-34 lead with 11:57 remaining.
The Terriers scored five consecutive points to make it 61-41 Minnesota with 8:48 left, but Minnesota answered with seven straight of its own to take a 68-41 lead with 4:40 remaining and basically wrap things up.
The game was close for most of the first half until Minnesota went on an 11-0 run late in the first half to take a 33-20 lead with 2:13 left until halftime.
–Field Level Media