Gophers men’s basketball coach Ben Johnson opted for two exhibition games in October — instead of one preseason and one closed scrimmage of previous years. He wanted his vastly remade roster to get better acclimated to Williams Arena.

The first exhibition game came Saturday against Division II Bemidji State, and Minnesota was not ready for the light of day.

Leading only 41-40 at the half, the U struggled with a Beavers team that had a losing record last season and has been picked to finish fifth in the Northern Sun conference this winter.

But Minnesota ran away in the second half, outscoring Bemidji State 49-25 in a 90-65 victory. Veteran returners Dawson Garcia, Parker Fox and Mike Mitchell helped turn it. Mitchell had a game-high 19 points, Garcia added 15 and Fox 14.

Minnesota will play Hamline on Oct. 29 at the Barn before the season starts against Oral Roberts on Nov. 6.

Deep threat

Brennan Rigsby, a transfer guard from Oregon, showed off a nice shooting stroke Saturday, going 3 for 6 from 3-point range, including one that was a step (or two) in from the block M logo. He finished with 17 points.

He shot 35 percent from deep for Ducks last year and can help the U replace what current L.A. Clippers guard Cam Christie did from behind the arc last year.

Three injuries

The Gophers played without three guards — Lu’Cye Patterson, Femi Odukale and Tyler Cochran. Two of which were news.

Patterson and Odukale have “minor” unspecified injuries, according to a U spokesperson on Saturday, while Johnson said a week ago that Cochran will be out after having surgery on his left left foot earlier this month. His expected return is in December.

Johnson will be asked to provide context on the Patterson and Odukale’s injuries postgame.

Early rotations

Without Patterson, a presumptive starter, the Gophers’ first five were Mitchell, Garcia, Rigsby, Kadyn Betts and Canisius transfer forward Frank Mitchell. The first U players off the bench were Fox, true freshman Isaac Asuma and Texas-San Antonio transfercenter Trey Edmonds.

One big highlight

Betts, a redshirt sophomore forward, had a posterizing dunk on Beavers forward John Sutherland of Grand Rapids, Minn., in the first half, but Betts was issued a technical foul for shouting in Sutherland’s face afterward.

After playing eight games last season, Betts might be stepping into a bigger role this year.

Late in these second half, the 6-foot-8 forward hung in the air and finished through contact. But he couldn’t completed the 3-point play.

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