Sports

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ― Lawrence Westbrook's strategy was simple: Pretend like he had earplugs in on the basketball court.

Despite struggling offensively since the beginning of February, Minnesota's leading scorer entered Sunday night's game against Northwestern vowing to block out the recent past and shoot the ball with confidence. The plan worked.

Westbrook made four three-pointers, scored 17 points and played aggressive defense on Northwestern's Craig Moore to lead Minnesota to an easy 72-45 victory over the Wildcats.

It was a timely performance as Minnesota (20-7, 8-7 Big Ten) snapped a two-game losing streak and regained some much-needed momentum in its quest to earn a NCAA tournament invitation.

"I have confidence in myself," said Westbrook, who had averaged only six points per game since the beginning of the month. "I stopped thinking so much."

The difference was clear from the beginning of the game.

"He didn't hesitate when he was open," Minnesota coach Tubby Smith said. "His footwork was there, he was the square to the basket."

With Westbrook going, the Gophers reached the 70-point mark for the first time since Jan. 15 at Wisconsin and recorded their largest margin of victory this season. That isn't a coincidence.

"Lawrence Westbrook is the closest thing we have to a guy who can get his own shot and get on a roll like that," Smith said.

Westbrook scored 10 of his points during a 20-5 Minnesota run that closed the first half. That spurt gave Minnesota a 36-18 lead at the break and all but assured the Gophers, who had lost four of five, of an easy victory.

The rest of the Minnesota players seemed to feed off of Westbrook's assertive play. Unlike in their loss at Northwestern, the Gophers attacked the Wildcats' 1-3-1 zone defense. Passive play was replaced by aggression.

"We passed the ball sharply," Minnesota forward Travis Busch said. "That was the biggest difference."

That was the case on both ends of the floor. Because while Westbrook got going offensively, Minnesota's defense got going as well.

Northwestern (14-11, 5-9) struggled offensively from the very beginning and the Wildcats were limited to a season-low 14 field goals. Kevin Coble and Moore, who combined for 42 points in Northwestern's win over Minnesota earlier this season, were limited to five and three points respectfully.

"They outplayed us in every regard," Northwestern coach Bill Carmody said. "We didn't shoot the ball well, but they had a lot to do with it."

Part of Minnesota's success was the result of speeding up the pace of the game. The Gophers are now 26-1 in nearly two full seasons under Smith when they score at least 70 points.

Minnesota's full-court pressure didn't create that many turnovers, but it got Northwestern uncomfortable offensively.

"We just didn't do a very good job," said Coble, who played despite missing practice this week because of flu-like symptoms. "It's ironic, normally the press causes all sorts of problems with the turnovers and that really didn't happen tonight. I thought we handled it nicely, but what it did do was disrupt our halfcourt sets. We just really didn't get into anything. That was the main difference."

John Shurna and Jeremy Nash each scored nine points to lead Northwestern. Devron Bostick came off of the bench to add nine points for Minnesota.

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