COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Gophers kept it close against No. 2 Ohio State in the first half on Saturday.

If they were Boy Scouts, and that moral victory were represented in the modest of merit badges, their vest was set ablaze in the second half.

After the Gophers trailed only 13-0 after 30 minutes, the Buckeyes bulldozed them in the opening 67 seconds of the second half, scoring 14 quick points in an eventual 37-3 loss at Ohio Stadium.

On the first play of the second half, running back Treyvon Henderson broke loose on a 75-yard touchdown run. On the U’s first play, quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis was strip-sacked; the Buckeyes recovered and returned it 15 yards. Three plays later, star receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. caught a touchdown pass.

The Gophers couldn’t stop, drop and roll to put out their incenration. Ohio State out-gained Minnesota 432-159.

Kaliakmanis threw an interception on the next series and it led to a Buckeyes field goal.

After Ohio State put together a 16-play touchdown drive to make it 37-0 early in the fourth quarter, many of the 104,019 fans wearing scarlet and gray headed for the exits.

No. 2 Ohio State (11-0, 8-0) might have started slower in a potential trap game, with The Game against fellow unbeaten Michigan coming next Saturday in Ann Arbor, but the Buckeyes shifted into high gear after the break.

The Gophers (5-6, 3-5 Big Ten) haven  lost three straight games and still need one more win to reach bowl eligibility. They have one last chance in the Battle for Paul Bunyan’s Axe against Wisconsin next Saturday.

Minnesota avoided its first shutout since the end of the 2017 season with a 54-yard field goal from Dragan Kesich midway through the fourth quarter.

The Buckeyes offense averaged 10 yards per play on its opening touchdown drive, but didn’t have the same success on the next four drives. Minnesota forced a three-and-out on the next drive. They were stopped inside Minnesota’s 30-yard line and forced to kick two field goals to extend a 13-0 lead.

Two of Minnesota’s offense drives went inside the Buckeyes 45-yard line, but instead of go for it on two different fourth-and-5 situations, head coach P.J. Fleck opted to punt.

The Buckeyes defense came into the game allowing less than 10 points per game, but Fleck opted against looking to strike in rare opportunities in Ohio State territory.

Minnesota punter Mark Crawford had a strong first half, with all five of his punts downed inside the 20-yard line. He had two 5o-plus-yard punts, long with two inside Buckeyes territory, and all of them forced Ohio State to sustain long drives.

Minnesota has now lost 12 straight games to Ohio State since a win at The Horseshoe in 2000.

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — The Ukrainian government has collected evidence of around 109,000 alleged Russian war crimes, including physical and cyberattacks, according to Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin.

Kostin told POLITICO on the sidelines of the Halifax International Security Forum on Saturday that Ukrainian officials have identified more than 400 suspected perpetrators of these crimes. Around 300 have been indicted, and 66 convicted.

“The wide range, the big scale of these incidents and war crimes requires a lot of work and a lot of new approaches,” Kostin said at the forum, where the Ukraine-Russia war has been a dominant theme. “It’s our commitment to decide to document, prosecute each and every incident, because each and every incident of war crimes has its victims.”

As Ukraine struggles to make progress in its fight against Russia, Kyiv has been compiling evidence of war crimes since the full-scale invasion last year to present to the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

The vast majority of the charges being prosecuted were considered crimes against humanity, such as the mass executions of Ukrainians in Bucha in 2022.

Kostin’s figures also include 265 investigations into crimes against the environment, such as the Russian attack on the Ukrainian Nova Kakhovka Dam earlier this year that led to the evacuation of thousands of Ukrainians.

Four cases so far have also been opened into cyber war crime charges.

Kostin said the inclusion of cyber crimes and crimes against the environment for the ICC evidence is a new initiative by Ukraine during this war, stressing that “every crime has victims.”

He also acknowledged the challenge of convicting Russian citizens who may not be in Ukraine or have evaded capture, though he noted that some have been brought to trial.

“The bigger part is Russian war criminals who we charge and who we try in absentia. This is a quite longer process because it requires more procedural actions,” Kostin said. “While all of them receive defense, it’s our position to ensure a fair trial for everyone, including Russian war criminals.”

Coach Ben Johnson acknowledges this year’s Gophers men’s basketball team is not going to routinely win by getting into offensive shootouts, but if it takes care of business in its own end, things could end like they did Saturday.

Dawson Garcia scored a team-high 14 points, including a late 3-point play, and Minnesota did just enough offensively to beat South Carolina-Upstate 67-53 at Williams Arena.

Mike Mitchell Jr., Joshua Ola-Joseph and Elijah Hawkins each had nine points in a balanced scoring attack. Pharrel Payne had seven points and tied a career high with four blocks.

Minnesota (3-1) shot just 39.7% but scored 10 of the final 11 points and 14 of the final 21.

“We can’t rely on making threes and making jump shots and scoring, you know, whatever it is, 89 points. That’s not a recipe for success. And so, we needed to find games where I kept telling them you have to win with your defense, we got to find ways to win with our defense, and I thought they really stepped up to the challenge,” Johnson said.

USC-Upstate (2-3) missed nine of its last 10 shots and did not score in the final 2:16. The Spartans shot 33.9%, including 29.4% in the final 20 minutes when they scored just 24 points.

“That defensive aggression we had we can definitely build off that and use in the other games,” Payne said.

It was a much better finish than Thursday when Minnesota was outscored 31-9 in blowing a 20-point second-half lead and falling 70-68 to Missouri.

“We knew we had to come back with some energy, especially it being a Saturday game at 1 o’clock,” Mitchell said.

That oomph had to be from within because The Barn was relatively subdued. USC-Upstate, predicted in a preseason poll to finish sixth in the nine-team Big South Conference, is not nearly the draw as a team from the Southeastern Conference.

“In that Missouri game it felt like the floor was shaking at some moments,” Mitchell said.

“We touched on it, we talked about the crowd’s not going to be the same the name on the jersey is not going to be the same, emotional game, quick prep,” Johnson said. “All the reasons to be sluggish and dead. And I just really want to challenge us defensively to have that energy and fight.”

Up 61-53, Garcia, who’d missed his previous four second-half shots, had a 3-point play with 1:52 left. The 6-foot-11 junior added a trey with 23 seconds left.

Mitchell made a pair of 3-pointers and Ola-Jospeh added a dunk as part a 12-4 spurt midway through the second half for a 53-43 Minnesota lead.

A 3-point play by Ola-Jospeh pushed the lead to 11 less than two minutes later, but the Gophers went scoreless for more than three minutes. Miguel Ayesa hit a 3 with 4:38 left to get USC-Upstate within five.

“Knowing how to win is a is a skill and we are we are figuring that out and we will need to continue to figure that out. And I think that’s what hurt us a little bit in Missouri,” Johnson said. “There’s difference between playing well, which I thought we really did for 30, 32 minutes, and then when you need to win you need to know how to do that, whether you have a lead and win that way or whether a team’s making a run, to get stops or convert offensively. … I loved that we had to go on a run and get there defensively.”

Related Articles

Men’s basketball: Gophers crash hard in a 70-68 loss to Missouri

Men’s basketball: First true test for Gophers comes Thursday vs. Missouri

Men’s basketball: Cam Christie’s big debut helps Gophers roll over UTSA

Men’s basketball: Gophers learning from other Big Ten upsets

Gophers men’s basketball coach Ben Johnson higher on recruiting class than national rankings

People who make decisions for the Vikings are naturally pleased with the quarterbacking of Josh Dobbs after two games, but also count coach Kevin O’Connell’s play-calling and direction for his success.

Dobbs, 28, who is playing for $1.5 million, can become a free agent after the season. The Vikings understandably want a larger sample than two games before considering a new contract.

Should Dobbs continue to excel, a new contract could be worth as much as $20 million a year. The Vikings also have the option of a franchise tag for him, but that cost would be prohibitive.

— Despite his age (36 next August), if Kirk Cousins fully recovers from his Achilles tear and doesn’t receive an incentive-laden extension, he’ll be the the NFL’s top free agent QB in March. That could cost nearly $45 million a year guaranteed for two years.

— Dobbs, much more mobile than Cousins, and Cousins, a better passer than Dobbs, have, coincidentally, the same agent, Mike McCartney.

— The Vikings probably cannot afford to sign Cousins, Justin Jefferson (probably $30 million a year) and Danielle Hunter (at least $25 million) to new contracts that will be due before next season.

Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson (18) warms up before an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Chargers, Sunday, Sept.24, 2023 in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Stacy Bengs)

— Considering the Vikings’ poor start (1-4) and all the injuries (Jefferson and Cousins included), if this team makes the playoffs, O’Connell would seem worthy of a contract extension of at least two years, maybe three with a nice pay bump after this season.

If O’Connell, 38, wanted, he could get a job at a top college probably doubling his $4 million salary. Gophers coach P.J. Fleck, 42, is paid $6 million.

— If the Vikings win four of their final seven games, they probably will get into the playoffs. The Vikings will hope that the first-place Lions have the division wrapped up when they host the Vikings in the final game on Jan. 7 so that Detroit rests some starters for the playoffs.

The Vikings’ playoff chances improved last week with the season-ending wrist injury to Bengals QB Joe Burrow. Minnesota plays in Cincinnati on Dec. 17.

— Dobbs has had alopecia, a chronic skin disease that causes hair loss, since he was a youngster.

— Viking T.J. Hockenson, with a new $66 million, four-year contract, leads NFL tight ends in catches (71) and yards (681).

— Calling Sunday night’s Vikings game in Denver for NBC will be Cris Collinsworth, Mike Tirico and Melissa Stark.

— Hub Meeds, the Vikings’ original mascot, turned 90 the other day and is doing well and resides in White Bear Lake.

— Paul Wiggins, who turned 89 on Saturday, remains as sharp and lucid as ever as a Vikings consultant.

— You won’t hear a more professional and objective radio football broadcast than the Gophers’ Mike Grimm and Darrell Thompson.

— Perhaps college football’s best coaching job this season belongs to Jerry Kill, formerly of the Gophers. Last year, Kill took the worst coaching job in America at New Mexico State and led the team to a Quick Lane bowl victory over Bowling Green.

This year, Kill’s Aggies were 8-3 entering Saturday’s game at Auburn and will play in another bowl game, maybe against Nevada in the New Mexico Bowl next month.

— Announced attendance for the Gophers men’s basketball season opener in an 80-60 victory over Bethune-Cookman was 7,132 in 14,625 capacity Williams Arena. It was 7,975 for Thursday’s 70-68 loss to Missouri.

— Concession sales at Williams Arena are now cashless.

— Prayers are welcome for classy former Gophers football star running back-Packers Pro Bowl linebacker Jim Carter, 75, an extraordinary guy who has a serious health issue.

— Former Gophers wideout Drew Wolitarsky and former Edina defensive back Evan Holm via North Dakota are with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who on Sunday play Montreal in Hamilton for the Canadian Football League Grey Cup.

— There has been a myriad of books about Minnesota sports. Many have been unenlightening. But Dave Mona’s vastly entertaining “Beyond the Sports Huddle” is required reading.

— After three games for Louisville, Dennis Evans, the 7-foot-1 freshman center who decommitted from the Gophers, is averaging 12 minutes, three points, two rebounds and .07 blocked shots.

— Ex-Gopher Jamison Battle is averaging 29 minutes, 11 points and five rebounds after three games as a senior for Ohio State.

— Virginia sophomore Andrew Rhode, who transferred from St. Thomas, is averaging 29 minutes, 6.3 points and three rebounds.

— Iowa women’s basketball star Caitlin Clark, who plays at Minnesota on Feb. 28, has a name, image and likeness (NIL) marketing value of $764,000, per On3. Hopkins grad Paige Bueckers, whose UConn team plays at Williams Arena on Sunday, has an NIL valuation of $646,000.

Bueckers has added social media Team Dunkin’ to her NIL deals. Clark has joined QB Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs on State Farm TV ads. Williams Arena tickets for the Feb. 28 game range from $79 to $369. For the UConn game, $59 to $499.

— That was former Gophers-Vikings linebacker Mark Dusbabek from Faribault officiating last week’s inaugural Netflix Cup at the the Wynn course in Las Vegas. Dusbabek, 59, is senior director of TV rules and a video analyst for the PGA Tour.

— Ex-Gopher Angus Flanagan has made it to Stage Two of PGA Tour qualifying school.

— Former Gopher Erik van Rooyen’s recent $1.5 million PGA Tour victory in Los Cabos, Mexico, brings his season’s earnings to $2.5 million, and more significantly a two-year PGA Tour exemption and an invitation to next April’s Masters. The average PGA Tour winnings for players this season are $2.3 million.

— Valpariso fifth-year senior Caleb VanArragon, the 2023 Minnesota State Amateur and State Open golf champion from Blaine, won two tournaments this fall, the second by 17 shots on the 7,054-yard Sand Creek course in Chesterton, Ind.

— St. Cloud State men’s hockey coach Brett Larson headlines the Old Timers Hockey Association luncheon on Monday at Mancini’s.

— Scott Becker, the former St. John’s University football-baseball standout who is an investor in the San Diego Padres, was heartbroken last week with the death of a dear friend, Padres’ owner Peter Seidler, at age 63. “Peter did more for San Diego’s homeless than anyone,” Becker said.

— Condolences to the family of Mike Foley, the 10-year Gophers men’s hockey assistant to Herb Brooks and Brad Buetow. Foley, from West St. Paul, died at age 80 the other day after dementia.

— Twin Cities golfers, including many of Minnesota’s storied players who have relied on expert equipment repair for decades, will miss Stan Steuter, who will retire next September after 42 years operating Golf Club Hospital in south Minneapolis. Steuter, 71, who lives in Elk River, intends to golf and hunt upon retirement.

“The best people in the world are my customers — people always say that, and I’m not just saying that — but golfers appreciate me and I’ve felt appreciated by them,” he said.

— Gary Serum, the former Twins pitcher from Alexandria, Minn., but born in Fargo, has been named to the North Dakota-South Dakota all-time dream baseball team. So was Roger Maris, born in Hibbing but raised in Fargo. Serum, 67, owns Serum’s Good Time Emporium in Anoka.

— For the Twins two seasons ago, catcher Mitch Garver hit .256 with 13 home runs in 68 games. Although he hit just .105 in this year’s World Series, in the regular season for the Texas Rangers he hit .270 with 19 homers in 87 games. And now, at age 32, he has a World Series ring coming.

— There were 38 Minnesota-born players on NHL season-opening rosters, mnhockey life.com points out.

— That was former Gopher-Timberwolf John Thomas making the honorary coin flip before alma mater Minneapolis Roosevelt played South in football the other day.

— Louie Cotroneo, the esteemed Johnson hockey coach who died at age 93 the other day, attended mass every day at the Church of Assumption. “Every day’s a bonus,” Louie would say every time he saw you.

Don’t print that

— The Vikings are the seventh NFL franchise for which Dobbs has played. Considering how talented, bright and analytical he is, he was asked by the Pioneer Press why he’s been in so many different places.

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Joshua Dobbs (15) smiles during warmups before the start of a NFL game against the New Orleans at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Sunday, Nov. 12, 2023. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

“Teams are aware that I’m searching for an opportunity to play at the end of the season,” he said. “Each stop, each opportunity, my role has grown. I recognized that about a year ago and kind of accepted that was going to be my journey.”

— The NFL Pro Bowl will be Feb. 4 in Orlando. The way it looks now, Hunter, Hockenson and Christian Darrisaw will represent the Vikings. Probably left out but deserving is Josh Metellus. Jefferson has missed too many games.

— The unremarkable Gophers football team could see several players transfer for name, image and likeness (NIL) deals.

— The Ohio State football team that was a 27.5-point favorite against the Gophers on Saturday has an NIL deal with a Columbus apparel firm that provides 24 offensive linemen and five QBs with custom outfits that include suits, shirts and shoes.

— Finally, the Gophers are about to return to the Rose Bowl. That’s where UCLA, which hosts Minnesota next Oct. 12, plays home games.

— Gophers football coach Fleck is signed through the 2029 season.

— Dennis Gates, whose Missouri men’s basketball team dramatically rallied to defeat the Gophers at Williams Arena on Thursday night, was considered for the Minnesota job while at Cleveland State three years ago.

— Pssst: Besides full scholarships, some Division I men’s basketball coaches will tell you it takes a $1.3 million September-to-May NIL budget for a 13-player roster just to get enough talent to get to the NCAA Tournament. For a Sweet 16 run, the NIL player price goes to $2.5 million.

— Ex-Twin Torii Hunter, 48, still eligible for 2024 Baseball Hall of Fame election, accepted an invitation to interview for the Angels’ managing job that last week went to ex-Twin Ron Washington, 71.

“It went pretty good, but you had Ron Washington and Buck Showalter who have done it for a while out there,” Hunter, who also played for the Angels, told the Pioneer Press. “Wash is awesome, always been a guy who talked to me, Jacques Jones, Matt Lawton and tries to activate you — that’s what he does. He’s very positive. He’s going to be good for those players.”

Hunter said he wasn’t disappointed he didn’t get the Angels job.

“Why would I be — I was driving to a board meeting and I was asked to interview, so I’m just thankful and honored to be even thought about and considered,” he said. “I thank the Angels for giving me the opportunity to just go through the process and interview.”

— Eric Musselman, the former Timberwolves assistant now head coach at Arkansas, told wholehogsports.com that he was 7 or 8 years old when he attended a camp where his father Bill and Bob Knight were coaches.

“I was in line with the other kids for a drill and a bee landed on my shoulder,” Eric recalled. “Coach Knight saw it and said, ‘What do you do when a bee lands on you and Coach Knight is speaking to us?’

“I said, ‘I don’t know.’ Coach Knight said, ‘Let it sting you.’ So I just stood there, and thankfully the bee flew away.”

— Safety Lewis Cine, 24, who received an $11.5 million, four-year contract that included a $5.5 million signing bonus as the Vikings’ first-round draft pick (No. 32 overall) out of Georgia last year, was again inactive against the Saints last week and probably will be a goner next season. His base salary is $1.23 million this season.

— Besides a $12.7 million contract, Twins free agent Sonny Gray will get a $1 million bonus for being runner-up for the American League Cy Young Award plus $100,000 for pitching more than 180 (actually 184) innings.

— Fired Texas A&M football coach Jimbo Fisher gets a $75 million contract buyout. Fleck’s buyout is $7 million if fired before Jan. 1.

— Of the Gophers’ three revenue-producing sports, football generates 90% with men’s basketball and hockey generating 10%.

— Matthew Hurt, the 2019 Minnesota Mr. Basketball from Rochester John Marshall and Duke, has turned down $600,000 and $500,000 offers from China and Japan, respectively, to play for the Memphis Grizzlies’ G League Memphis Hustle for about $140,000 this season.

— A little birdie says the architect redesigning Interlachen Country Club that is underway is getting paid $600,000 for his work on the $30 million project. There’s a provision that he can’t work for any other Minnesota course during the process.

— Ex-Gophers heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar received $8 million for his Ultimate Fighting Championship match against Mark Hunt and $3 million for his UFC fight against Alistair Overeem, reports the Huddleup newsletter.

— It was a second $12,000 for a week on the Vikings’ practice squad for ex-Gophers QB Tanner Morgan before another release.

— Sixty-nine donors gave $47,586 to the University of St. Thomas baseball program, the most donors among the school’s sports, on Tommie Give Day last Tuesday. Football received $12,318 from 49 donors, men’s basketball $48,850 from 40 donors and men’s hockey $16,109 from 62 donors.

Overheard

— Ex-Twin Hunter on whether he would like to manage in the major leagues: “I have a Ph.D. in baseball. I’ve always been a guy who tried to get the best out of other players, even when I was struggling, telling them they can do more than they could ever imagine. Doing it for other people is way better.”

Related Articles

Charley Walters: Vikings’ QB future as muddled as ever with Cousins’ injury