Elijah Hawkins fills up stat sheet in Gophers’ 65-62 win over Maryland
Elijah Hawkins has been busting out a fitting celebration.
After nifty assists — of which there have been many this season— the Gophers point guard will cup his hands around his eyes as if he’s wearing X-ray vision goggles.
Hawkins leadership, passing and deep 3-pointers helped Minnesota to a 65-62 win over Maryland in a Sunday matinee at Williams Arena.
The Gophers (12-3, 3-1 Big Ten) have won seven straight and snapped a 10-game losing skid to Maryland since 2017.
Dawson Garcia iced the game with four free made throws in the final 15 seconds.
Hawkins also got the best in his matchup with Terrapins point guard Young; they both attended Dematha Catholic High School outside of Washington, D.C.
Terrapins point guard Jahmir Young, who was averaging 25.4 points in the last five games, still got to 20 points but shot 5-of-17 from the field.
Maryland (9-6, 1-3) stayed in the game with last-minute 3-pointers from Donta Scott and Young.
Elijah Hawkins, who is averaging 10.8 assists over the previous six games, finished 10 points and nine assists.
The Gophers had made only two of 18 3-pointers into the second half before hitting on three consecutive — Braeden Carrington, Cam Christie and Hawkins from the Cambira logo — to tie Maryland 40-40 with 11 minutes left.
Hawkins then drilled another from as deep to beat the shot clock and take a 47-45 lead with 8:15 left.
In the first half, the Gophers got one point from their leading scorer (Garcia) and shot horribly from 3-point range (1 of 14), but were only down 29-22 at the break due to Maryland’s 15 turnovers. The Terrapins had only two turnovers on the second half.
Garcia and center Pharrel Payne each picked up two fouls in the first half and spend more time on the bench.
Coach Ben Johnson is irked by 3-pointers shot early in the possession, calling them “no-pass” or “one-pass jacks.” Both Hawkins and Mike Mitchell each found themselves guilty of that cardinal sin and on the bench accordingly.
Minnesota went more than six minutes without a basket, including an alley-oop thrown too high fro Hawkins to Josh Ola-Joseph. That pair has connected on many lobs this season, showing how off they were in the opening 20 minutes.
Maryland went on a 14-0 run and staked its largest lead at 23-12. But Carrington made the U’s only trey of the first half and it was part of an 8-0 run to cut the Terrapins lead to 23-20.
Hawkins had four steals in the opening four-plus minutes to help Minnesota take a 10-7 edge and he finished with six steals, one of his career high.
Pregame, Hawkins was honored for breaking the school’s single game assist record (17) in a nonconference game against Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis.
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