Minnesota finds its touch from distance

Minnesota 86, Louisville 76

DES MOINES, Iowa — Minnesota found its elusive three-point stroke just in time to give coach Richard Pitino the NCAA Tournament win he’d been seeking for years.

The 10th-seeded Gophers won their first NCAA Tournament game in six seasons behind 24 points from freshman Gabe Kalscheur, who helped Minnesota roll past Louisville 86-76 in the opening round of the East Region on Thursday.

The win for Pitino came against the school that fired his father. Rick Pitino coached the Cardinals for 16 seasons before his 2017 dismissal.

“This wasn’t about getting the win for coach Pitino. It was about getting the win for us in general and advancing to the next round,” said Minnesota’s Jordan Murphy, who scored 18 points. “That’s what makes him happy, and that’s what makes us happy.”

Amir Coffey also had 18 points for Minnesota (22-13), which made 11 threes despite entering play ranked 344th nationally in made threes per game.

Five of those triples came from Kalscheur, who finished a point shy of his career high for points.

Kalscheur’s layup early in the second half gave Minnesota its first doubledigit lead, 43-33, and Murphy’s layup made it 50-38 with 16:06 left.

The Cardinals (20-14) went to a full-court press in an effort to slow the surging Golden Gophers. But that just left Kalscheur open from the same spot on back-to-back possessions, and he drilled two threes to give Minnesota a 59-43 lead.

Louisville then fouled Kalscheur behind the three-point line, where he pushed the lead to 19 with 9:48 to go.

“I feel like they were giving it to us,” Kalscheur said. “We just fed off each other.”

The seventh-seeded Cardinals cut it to seven late, but Christen Cunningham missed an open three attempt that could’ve made things interesting down the stretch.

“Really a tough feeling to end your season so quickly,” Louisville coach Chris Mack said. “I am very proud of our group. They exceeded a lot of people’s expectations.”