Lightning--and Westbrook--strike twice as Minnesota gains vital win over Wisconsin

Several weeks ago in the Kohl Center, Lawrence Westbrook almost singlehandedly led his Minnesota teammates to a late, come-from-behind victory against a shellshocked Wisconsin squad. Wednesday night in Minneapolis, the same thing happened again, with one slight difference: This time, Westbrook did singlehandedly lead the Golden Gophers to yet another confounding but consequential conquest of the bitterly disappointed Badgers.
 
The Barn brought a delightful dose of deja vu to Tubby Smith's crew, who used 10 points from Westbrook in the final two minutes of regulation to overcome Bo Ryan's men from Madison, 51-46. Now assured of a .500 finish in Big Ten play, the Gophers can become an NCAA Tournament lock with a Saturday win over Michigan. If they lose to the Wolverines, tonight's victory will still buy Tubby's troops some insurance come Selection Sunday... enough, perhaps, to the extent that just one win in the Big Ten Tournament will produce at at-large bid to the Big Dance.

 
Minnesota's act of survival against Wisconsin--in a five-point fistfight that was expectedly rugged from start to finish--was remarkable enough in its own right. After the Gophers' woeful offense produced just 41 points in the first 38 minutes of action, it seemed entirely possible that the U of M would score 41 points for the second straight game. Last Thursday, Westbrook and the rest of his basketball brethren were limited to that same point total at Illinois, so when the Badgers held a 46-41 lead just under the two-minute mark of regulation, the Gophers' offense--like their NCAA Tournament chances--was dying on the vine. On yet another evening, it appeared that no one was going to be able to answer the bell and become the reliable crunch-time scorer Minnesota has needed throughout the 2009 Big Ten season.
 
It was at this time that Lawrence Westbrook turned on the wayback machine, saving his team's season.
 
Back on Jan. 15 in Madison, it was Westbrook who scored 9 points in the final three minutes of regulation to help Minnesota erase a 12-point deficit and send the Badgers into overtime. In the extra period, Westbrook tallied 9 more points to lift the Gophers across the threshold and into the winner's circle, 78-74. That particular triumph was Minnesota's biggest Big Ten win to date. How utterly amazing, then, that a nearly identical scenario--with an equally significant result--would define the Wisconsin-Minnesota rematch a month and a half later.

With two artful field goal makes and 6-of-6 shooting at the foul line, Westbrook abruptly turned frowns upside down throughout the Land of 10,000 Lakes, giving Gopher Nation a win that electrified Williams Arena. Having been benched by Smith, Westbrook didn't give any appearances of being ready to bounce back for most of the night, but precisely when the Gophers had absolutely no remaining margin for error, Westbrook conjured up the memory of his Badger-blunting heroics, and pulled off the improbable once again. Bo Ryan's defenses are hard to crack for any Big Ten team--no matter the venue or the stakes involved--so it's far beyond astonishing to see one man don a red cape (or perhaps, for Minnesota, a maroon-and-gold cape) and slay Wisconsin twice in the waning moments of regulation time. 
 
Lawrence Westbrook did the deed, though, and because of his titanic two-minute display, Minnesota basketball is that much closer to its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2005, and its second tourney ticket this decade.
 
Wisconsin will move on to its regular-season finale on Sunday against Indiana. If the Badgers then happen to draw the Gophers in the early rounds of the Big Ten Tournament, they'll have only one key in the final minutes of regulation: Stop Lawrence Westbrook.
 

 

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