MINNEAPOLIS — Dawson Garcia began calling for the ball before he crossed half court. Once he got it, he let it fly to give Minnesota its first Big Ten victory of the season.
Garcia’s 3-pointer from the near edge of the center logo beat the overtime buzzer to give Minnesota an 84-81 victory over No. 20 Michigan on Thursday night.
Garcia, whose two free throws with 7.4 seconds left sent it to overtime, spent much of the game banging on the inside at both ends of the court against Michigan’s twin towers, 7-footers Danny Wolf and Vladislav Goldin. In fact, just before his buzzer-beater, Garcia was taken to the hoop by Wolf for a layup that tied it at 81 with seven seconds to play.
Gophers coach Ben Johnson called a play during the previous huddle just in case the game came down to one more possession. But Patterson bobbled the inbounds pass and didn’t have a chance to set up the play.
Instead, Lu’Cye Patterson brought the ball into the frontcourt, then passed to Garcia, who was trailing on the play. The 6-foot-11 senior, had his back heel on the “M” logo when he launched a high-arcing jumper that splashed through the net as the buzzer sounded, touching off a wild moment as both his teammates and fans stormed the court to celebrate.
“It’s a little bit of broken play, combined with they kind of know the concepts of what we’re trying to do,” Johnson said. “And they read it great.”
Patterson initially had a different outcome in mind.
“I was just trying to get to the cup,” Patterson said. “But [Garcia] wanted it, and I lined it up for him. I tried to put the ball in the right place for his hands and he did it. I trust him, you know, like he’s my brother, so it was a no-brainer for me.”
Garcia wasn’t exactly sure how far past the half-court line he’d made it before shooting.
“I didn’t know initially,” he said, “but I looked back and I was like, ‘I think I was at the logo!'”
Garcia finished with 27 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Gophers (9-10, 1-6).
