Bobby Durkin scored 16 points on 5-for-6 shooting, and Minnesota cruised to an 85-50 win over North Dakota in the season opener for both teams Monday night in Minneapolis.
Jaylen Crocker-Johnson added 15 points for Minnesota (1-0), which led by double-digits for most of the game. Isaac Asuma finished with 13 points, six rebounds and six assists, and Malick Kordel contributed 13 points in 16 minutes off the bench.
Jayden Moore scored 13 points off the bench to lead North Dakota (0-1). Andrija Radojevic scored 10 points off the bench, and Zack Parks provided a spark on defense with six rebounds and three steals.
Minnesota shot 54.8% (34-of-62) from the field and 40% (10-of-25) from 3-point range. North Dakota shot 28.8% (17-of-59) overall and 10.7% (3-of-28) from beyond the arc.
The Fighting Hawks tried to stay close in the first nine minutes. After Radojevic drained a pair of free throws, Moore knocked down a pull-up jump shot to cut the deficit to 15-9 with 11:20 to play in the first half.
The Golden Gophers took control from that point forward.
Crocker-Johnson made a 3-pointer to make it 18-9, and Grayson Grove followed with an alley-oop dunk off a pass from Kyan Evans to increase the lead to 20-9 with 10:06 remaining in the first half.
By halftime, Minnesota held a comfortable 41-25 lead. Crocker-Johnson made a layup to put the Golden Gophers on top by 20 points with 1:36 left in the half, but Moore finished the session with back-to-back layups to bring the Fighting Hawks within 16 points at the break.
Minnesota erupted in the second half with an 18-0 run to put the Fighting Hawks away.
North Dakota’s Samuel Hincapie scored the first basket of the second half to cut the deficit to 41-27.
Then came a dominant stretch starting with back-to-back 3-pointers by Evans and Crocker-Johnson. Durkin followed with a dunk, and Malick Kordel eventually punctuated the run with another dunk to make it 59-27 with 14:40 to go.