MINNEAPOLIS — Rodney Williams scored a season-high 19 points, including a 360-degree dunk off a fast break, and Trevor Mbakwe grabbed a career-high 18 rebounds to lead 13th-ranked Minnesota past North Dakota State 70-57 on Tuesday night.
Mbakwe added 14 points and Andre Hollins had 11 for the Gophers (11-1), who have won 16 straight games in this series, last losing in 1936.
Lawrence Alexander led the Bison (8-3) with 19 points, Taylor Braun added 15 and Marshall Bjorklund pitched in 12. Braun, who won two of the last three Summit League Player of the Week awards, fouled out with 3:57 left on a pump-fake power move by Mbakwe for a layup and three-point play.
The Bison were more competitive than in their visit to No. 1 Indiana on Nov. 12, an 87-61 loss, but they weren’t able to hang with the Gophers the way they did last year in outrebounding the bigger Big Ten foe and falling 63-59. NDSU has beaten Minnesota twice in football since 2007, but basketball hasn’t brought the same success for the Bison against the only major conference school for hundreds of miles.