Men’s Basketball

For so many years, Nia Coffey was the best player on the purple-outlined court of Welsh-Ryan Arena.

Thursday, her brother, Minnesota’s Amir Coffey, put on a performance reminiscent of what his older sister used to do in purple and white.

The junior guard — born two years after Nia — had the best game of his career. He had career-highs in points with 32 and rebounds with 12 for his first career double-double while playing the whole game. His excellence led the Golden Gophers to a 62-50 victory over the Wildcats.

NU (12-16, 3-14 Big Ten) decided to start junior forward Aaron Falzon with senior center Dererk Pardon instead of junior center Barret Benson, despite the fact Minnesota (18-11, 7-10) plays with two post-oriented players — Jordan Murphy and Daniel Oturu. It did not take long for Collins to substitute Benson in for Falzon. And Collins did so before the under-16 timeout, something that he never does. But Benson picked up two fouls in less than a minute and only played only a few seconds more.

Following Benson’s second foul, the Golden Gophers went on a little bit of a run, extending their early lead to 16-6 halfway through the first 20 minutes.

Behind two three-pointers from freshman forward Miller Kopp, the Cats were able to shorten the deficit to 18-14 before Minnesota was able to re-extend their lead behind the hot shooting of Coffey.

Coffey scored seven straight points before Gabe Kalscheur hit a trey to make it a 14-point lead. On the final possession of the half, Pardon missed a tip-in in the final second as the Cats ended the half down 32-20.

NU came out of the second half with a different five — with freshman forward Pete Nance and Kopp starting with Law, Pardon and sophomore guard Anthony Gaines — and a different energy. Pardon made a nice post move on the first possession before Law slammed home a dunk in transition. The Cats then got a shot-clock violation on the defensive end.

But then it got out of hand. The Golden Gophers went on a nine-point run behind Coffey to take a 41-24 lead, forcing Collins to call a timeout.

For the rest of the game, Minnesota held a steady grip on its lead. The Golden Gophers advantage never got into single digits and they were able to balloon the lead to 20 at one point. As throughout the game, Coffey ran the show for Minnesota as he continued to hit shots and make plays. The exclamation point occurred with about four minutes left when Dupree McBrayer got a steal and put up a crazy outlet pass to Coffey, who slammed it home.

For the Cats, only four players scored points during the first 35 minutes of the game — Gaines, Kopp, Law and Pardon. As a whole, NU shot 34.6 percent from the field and 29.2 percent from deep.

Takeaways

1. When the Wildcats sent the double, the Golden Gophers adjusted. No matter who was on the floor for the Cats, NU doubled Minnesota’s two post players, Murphy and Oturu, when they caught the ball in the post. When either Murphy or Oturu caught the ball in the post, the Cats would send the defender of the other player. The plan was a mixed bag. On the one hand, they stopped the two post-threats. Murphy was 1-for-7 and Oturu was 0-for-3 in the first half and the Golden Gophers used post touches much less often in the second half. But the two did manage to make plays out of the double-team. On one possession in the first half, the rotation was late and Murphy found Eric Curry wide open under the basket. Another time, Murphy found an open Kalscheur in the corner for a triple.

2. Nance looks rusty in his return to the hardwood. After Benson picked up his second foul, freshman forward Pete Nance checked into the game. It was the freshman’s first appearance since Jan. 18 against Rutgers, a stretch of about six weeks. In first game back, Nance looked out of rhythm. He seemed unsure of himself defensively. On one possession, he was switched onto Amir Coffey and had a triple nailed right in his face. Offensively, he looked a step behind. In total, the Ohio native played 22 minutes, scoring zero points.

3. Dererk Pardon continues to play on a different level than his teammates. It was been a breakout season for Pardon, becoming a focal point of the offense and thriving in his role. The senior center had 16 points and 13 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season. He was the only player on the team to shoot over 50 percent from the floor and did so while barely sitting on the bench. It has been a rough February for the Cats as they failed to win a game in the month. It has been tough to watch NU play during the last month and the play of Pardon has been the saving grace in a few games. It is unfortunate that the stretch run, and best run, of his career is coming at a time of difficulty for the the Cats.

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Twitter: @thepeterwarren