The day before the Gophers resumed Big Ten play against Illinois, Nate Mason posted a picture of himself on Instagram laying on a training table with his whole body practically covered in inflated compression bags. The All-Big Ten senior point guard’s arms and legs looked like the Michelin Man.
Mason was determined to return to the court with his team playing against an Illinois squad hoping to pull off the upset using its aggressive on-ball pressure defense against a backcourt minus its leader.
With him back in the lineup Wednesday, the Gophers got a jolt of confidence in the first half to take a 13-point halftime lead, but it had to fight off a late run for a 77-67 victory against the Illini at Williams Arena. Mason finished with a team-high 17 points.
Minnesota led by as much as 20 points in the first half, but Illinois wasn’t bowing out early, carving the huge deficit down to 55-51 after Mark Smith’s three-pointer and a putback from De’Monte Williams with 10:15 left in the second half.
The Gophers (13-3, 2-1) appeared to be running out of gas before Reggie Lynch and Jordan Murphy finally answered in the surge. Murphy’s three-point play made it a nine-point advantage and gave him his Division-I leading 16th straight double-double to start the season.
Instead of Illinois making an early statement with its defense, Minnesota jumped out to a 17-2 lead after holding its opponent to 1-for-19 shooting from the field to open the game.
Before he left for the first time at the 12-minute mark, Mason stole the ball in transition and zipped a three-quarters court pass to Murphy for an emphatic two-handed dunk. On the following possession, Mason connected with Amir Coffey for an alley-oop slam on the fastbreak.
The Illini (10-6, 0-3) finally ended their scoring drought, but Mason returned from the bench to score his first basket at 9:33. That ignited a 10-2 run with eight points, including two three-pointers. The Gophers led at halftime 39-26.
Mason missed Saturday’s 65-55 win against Harvard with an ankle injury. But the All-Big Ten point guard went through pregame warmups Wednesday with the team and looked much more comfortable moving and cutting on his left ankle.
The Illini rank first in the Big Ten and sixth nationally in turnovers forced per game (19.2). Gophers coach Richard Pitino said the Illini “deny everything” and don’t allow opponents to run their offense.
Pitino said earlier this week that junior guard Dupree McBrayer will definitely play Wednesday against Illinois. McBrayer had 15 points against Harvard Saturday in his return from a two-game absence with a lower left leg injury.
Mason and McBrayer haven’t been in the lineup together since a Dec. 11 wini against Drake. McBrayer missed both the Oral Roberts and Florida Atlantic games.