Gophers’ Cade Tyson Shines in Blowout Win Over Texas Southern
Cade Tyson was the undisputed star of the Gophers’ 89-53 win over Texas Southern on Sunday, but all of his teammates got some air time after his career-high 38-point performance at Williams Arena. During the on-court postgame interview, every Gopher huddled behind Tyson to support their guy and be on the in-area feed — a move the NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder have made famous.
Tyson’s Career-High Performance
“It felt great with my guys behind me,” Tyson said. “I feel a lot of the credit, if not most of it, goes to them.” The group shot was fitting, too, in how the Gophers shared the ball with 27 assists on 28 made field goals. Minnesota came into the game at No. 3 in the nation in assists to made field goals (69%) and swelled that percentage. The only unassisted basket was Bobby Drurkin’s steal and fast break lay-up with five minutes left in the game.
Ball movement is a hallmark of Niko Medved’s teams, but the new head coach said he’s never had one of his teams assist on every bucket in a game. “I don’t know if I’ve ever had one away, too, and again, Durkin had to screw the whole thing up,” Medved said with a dose of sarcasm. Tyson tied a program record with eight made three-pointers and while he said he didn’t know about his place in the U’s record book, he sure seemed to be gunning for the record breaker when he pulled a quick trigger on a (missed) trey late in the game.
Rebounding and Team Effort
“Everybody sees the shot-making, but what I love the most about him today was the rebounding,” Medved said of Tyson’s career-high 11 boards. “It doesn’t matter the score, he’s trying to go get every offensive rebound. He’s battling his tail end off. He’s got his lip bloodied and he just keeps playing.” Texas Southern came into Sunday’s game with one of the worst resumes in Division I. The Southwestern Athletic Conference team had only one victory coming over College of Biblical Studies, a Division II school.
The Gophers (6-5) kept the Tigers (1-7) down with a 36-point margin. Texas Southern was allowing 86.7 points per game (352nd in the nation), which provided a path for Minnesota to set a season record with 15 made 3-pointers. The U’s ability to quickly adjust to the Tigers’ surprising zone defense to start the game helped get them rolling. Tyson made a three to start the game and it was part of his 23 first-half points as the U led 45-25 at the break.
Langston Reynolds, who is helping fill in for injured point guard Chansey Willis, had a career-high 11 assists. “What I really liked, and he was the first guy I pointed out to the group, he kind of did what the game required,” Medved said. “I don’t think he scored until the second half on a free throw, but he got so many guys open looks.” The Gophers, who are 6-0 at The Barn this year, will close out nonconference play with two more home games: Campbell on Dec. 21 and Fairleigh Dickinson on Dec. 29.
The U restarts Big Ten play with an 18-game stretch on Jan. 3 with a road trip to Northwestern. For more information on the game, visit Here
Image Source: www.twincities.com
