Gophers Advance, Face Ohio State Tonight

CHICAGO (AP) (GopherSports.com) -- Joey King hit six 3-pointers and scored 20 to lead Minnesota to an 80-68 victory over Rutgers in the first round of the Big Ten tournament on Wednesday.

The 11th-seeded Golden Gophers (18-14) broke open a tight game on a 22-8 spurt midway through in the second half. King and Charles Buggs highlighted the blitz with three 3-pointers in a span of 53 seconds.

After King extended the lead to 43-38 at the seven-minute mark, Buggs buried another 3-pointer 18 seconds later. Rutgers' Junior Etou followed with a pair free throws, then King hit a 3-pointer to give his team a 49-40 advantage.

Carlos Morris scored 16 points for the Golden Gophers, while Nate Mason added 15 more. DeAndre Mathieu contributed a game-high eight assists.

Minnesota (18-14) shot 52 percent in the field and scored 42 points in the paint. The Golden Gophers will meet Ohio State on Thursday night.

Kadeem Jack led Rutgers (10-22) with 18 points. Bishop Daniels and Myles Mack scored 15 points apiece, but the 14th-seeded Scarlet Knights closed their first season in the Big Ten with 15 consecutive losses - 10 by 10-or-more points.

The Scarlet Knights converted just 35 percent of their field-goal tries in the first half, but they scored 13 points off eight turnovers to stay in the game.

Rutgers twice led by as many as five points in the first half, the last time at 19-14 on D.J. Foreman's tip-in at the 11:57 mark.

Minnesota responded with a 12-4 run to take a 26-21 advantage. Morris had six points in the spurt.

Rutgers pulled even at 26-all on Mack's 3-pointer with 2:12 left in the half. But King answered with a 3-pointer and Minnesota took a 30-27 lead into the break.

Head coach Richard Pitino's father Rick was among those in the crowd. The Louisville head coach watched from a seat behind the bench.

Guard Andre Hollins was scoreless and remained 25 points behind Randy Breuer for third place on the team's career list.

Minnesota faces No. 6 seed Ohio State tonight at 8 o'clock, 7:30 pre-game on 1340 KROC AM.