BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Thomas Bryant scored a career-high 23 points Saturday to help No. 19 Indiana hang on for a 74-68 victory over Minnesota.
The Hoosiers (18-4, 8-1) barely retained their share of the Big Ten lead after blowing a 16-point second-half lead. They've won 13 of their last 14.
Minnesota (6-16, 0-10) lost its 11th straight despite getting 21 points apiece from Nate Mason and Kevin Dorsey, who led the comeback.
The Golden Gophers took a 67-66 lead with 3:54 to go, but Indiana finished the game on an 8-1 run to seal the win.
The Hoosiers led 39-27 at halftime. When they extended the lead to 48-32 early in the second half, it appeared they would coast.
Instead, the Gophers rallied. They answered with six straight points, went on an 11-4 run and took the lead when Dupree McBayer scored on a dunk.
Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell and Troy Williams each scored 13 for the Hoosiers, while Bryant finished with eight rebounds.
But this was no typical game for the surging Hoosiers.
They started slow, didn't get the lead until midway through the first half, didn't make a 3-pointer for the first 14 1/2 minutes and couldn't close it out after taking a 16-point lead with 16:33 to play. And things got so frustrating that with 5:38 left in the game, it appeared two Hoosiers were arguing about a defensive assignment following a foul.
Mason and Dorsey, who had a career-high scoring total, took advantage of the strange night and methodically got the Gophers back into the game.
After a 6-0 scoring flurry cut the deficit to 10, Minnesota went on the 11-4 run to get within three. But after taking the lead on Dupree's dunk, Minnesota didn't score another basket.
TURNAROUND TURNABOUT
Minnesota knows how it feels to see a game slipping away against the Hoosiers. After starting the game with a 7-0 lead, the Hoosiers used a 22-4 run to take a 39-27 halftime lead. In the first meeting this season, at Minnesota, the Hoosiers rallied from a nine-point first-half deficit for a 70-63 win.
TIP-INS
Minnesota: Senior guard Carlos Morris, the team captain, missed the game to attend the funeral of a family friend. ... In addition to losing 11 in a row, the Gophers have lost three straight in the Indiana series and 15 of their last 16 Big Ten regular season games. ... The latest loss kept coach Richard Pitino stuck on 49 career wins.
Indiana: Came into the game with three consecutive home wins by 25 or more points for the first time since 1987-88. ... After setting a Big Ten record with 18 3-pointers in Minnesota's last trip to Bloomington, the Hoosiers were just 2 of 18 on 3s on Saturday.
UP NEXT
Minnesota visits Northwestern on Thursday.
Indiana visits Michigan on Tuesday.
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