For the second straight game, the Gophers men’s basketball team had to overcome a sluggish first half. This time, the result was better.

Dawson Garcia scored 19 of his game-high 24 points in the second half, Brennan Rigsby added 15, and Minnesota rallied to beat Yale 59-56 Saturday afternoon at Williams Arena.

“You need all of them, but to be able to respond the way we did is a step in the right direction,” said coach Ben Johnson.

Garcia scored eight points in a 11-3 late surge, including both free throws for a four-point lead with 18.7 seconds left. He added two more with 2.1 ticks on the clock.

The 6-foot-11 forward, who made all 10 attempts from the charity stripe Wednesday, finished 10 of 12 from the line. His teammates were a combined 6 for 14.

“I had some ugly misses tonight, but I was thankful that my work that I’ve been doing just came through,” Garcia said.

“We set a goal for him at the beginning of the year if he can get to the line 10 times a game that’s huge for him and huge for us,” Johnson said. “Not only is he getting there, he’s making them, and those are run stoppers.”

Minnesota (3-1) needed a late run to beat Nebraska Omaha 68-64 a week ago, then shot a mere 31.3% from the field Wednesday, including a dreadful 3 for 21 in the first half, in falling 54-51 to North Texas.

Minnesota’s offensive statistics still leave plenty to be desired. The Gophers shot 36.4% from the field, including 29.6% in the first half, and finished just 3 of 17 from 3-point range. Minnesota is 11 for 52 from deep over its past three games.

“We’re not a team that’s gonna be scoring this low. We got a lot of offensive firepower, and once it all starts clicking, if we hold on the defense too, it could get real for us,” Garcia said.

It’s not like Yale is a pushover. Coming off a 23-10 season that included an NCAA tournament berth, it is picked to finish second in the Ivy League. The 2-3 Bulldogs lost by eight at Purdue on Monday.

But nobody will use a tough opponent as an excuse for Minnesota missing 17 of its first 22 shots, including eight of nine from deep. The Gophers twice had scoreless droughts of more than six minutes in the opening 20 minutes, and scored just four points in a 14 minute, 16 second span.

Keyed by a 16-2 run over a nearly eight-minute stretch for an 18-9 lead midway through the first half, the Bulldogs led 29-19 at intermission. Minnesota trailed by nine at the break Wednesday.

“We came down in the locker room and we were just like, not gonna happen again, and we’re not gonna lose this game today. And we’re going to find a way to win. It was an overwhelming confidence for every single person in the room. It wasn’t any sense of worry, it was just a sense of urgency to know what we had to do,” Garcia said.

His team playing more aggressive, Rigsby scored five points in an 11-3 run out of the break to get Minnesota within 32-30. A Femi Odukale layup from Lu’cye Patterson put the Gophers up 39-38 with 11:45 left, their first lead since 7-6.

Patterson had a team-high six assists.

Starting point guard Mike Mitchell Jr. missed his second straight game with an ankle injury, while guards Caleb Williams (illness) and Tyler Cochran (foot) remain out.

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