Four University of Minnesota students consumed more hotdogs in a halftime eating contest than the Gophers men’s basketball team made shots in the first half against Chicago State on Tuesday night.

On $2 dog night at Williams Arena, the male students mangled and mashed down the majority of 16 hot dogs (four apiece) in a sprint race, while the U players managed to make only nine of 30 shots in the opening 20-minute slog.

The Gophers’ performance in the second half continued to be stomach-churning as Chicago State, a 26-point underdog, went on a 18-6 spurt to take 45-44 lead with nine minutes left.

But Minnesota ended the game on a 21-7 run to escape a stunning upset with a 66-54 win at The Barn.

To show the magnitude of the narrow escape, Chicago State was ranked 361 out of 365 total teams in Division I going into the game, while Minnesota was in the 80s at tipoff.

For the game, the Gophers shot 36% from the field and 25% from 3-point range; that allowed Chicago State to hang around.

“We just really struggled to make shots,” head coach Niko Medved said. “(It) got frustrating. One of the things the team has to continue to get better at: when things aren’t going your way, we got to find a way to bring a little bit more juice and energy and pick guys up. That is something that you got to go through as a team when you have so many new guys, learning what you do and what you trust to get through it.”

With nine new transfers, Minnesota started the season flowing with 87 points against Gardner-Webb in the opener and 95 points against Alcorn State. But they scored only 60 against Missouri and 61 in regulation of the overtime win over Green Bay on Saturday.

“If you are scoring in the 60s, that’s an issue,” Medved said. “What it is, I don’t know. We are also the same team that scored a lot of points early, too. So, it’s early in the season. I have to go look at the film.”

The Gophers had troubles facing zone defenses against Missouri and Green Bay, but Medved employed his own zone against Chicago State to great success down the stretch. Chicago State didn’t score a basket in the final three minutes.

“We just needed to stay composed and not get frustrated at ourselves and stuff not going right,” said Jaylen Crocker-Johnson, who finished with 15 points and seven rebounds. “It’s really just digging down, getting stops and turning it into offense for us.”

The Gophers again relied on Cade Tyson, who had a game-high 22 points. He was 3 for 8 from deep, while the rest of his team has 4 for 20.

Gophers center Robert Vaihola appeared to hyperextend his right knee in the second half and didn’t return. Medved said it was too early to know the extent of his injury.

Minnesota (4-1) took a 22-8 lead after the first 10 minutes but struggled for the next 20-plus minutes.

In the first half, the Gophers shot 30% from field, 20% from 3-point range and didn’t score a bucket over the final five minutes and 38 seconds. But Chicago State wasn’t any better, so Minnesota led 31-24 at the break.

The Gophers will play San Francisco in Sioux Falls, S.D. on Saturday. Then Minnesota will go to Palm Springs to play Stanford on Thanksgiving, Nov. 27, and either Santa Clara or St. Louis on Nov. 28.

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