MINNEAPOLIS -- Dupree McBrayer scored 21 points and Nate Mason added 19 points and seven assists for the Minnesota Gophers, who pulled away late to beat LIU Brooklyn 76-66 on Wednesday night.Jordan Murphy added 13 points for Minnesota (11-1) as the Gophers won their fifth straight game. Eric Curry had 11 points and a team-high eight rebounds off the bench as Minnesota used its size advantage to outscore the Blackbirds 38-20 in the paint.At the end of last season both of us put in our minds that we were going to come back better players than ever, Mason said McBrayer and himself. We definitely put in the work, put in the work together sometimes. It is good to see both of us excelling.Trailing by 14 at halftime, LIU Brooklyn scored the first 12 points of the second half while connecting on four 3-pointers. But two points was as close as the Blackbirds would get, despite hitting seven 3s in the second half.Were a pretty-efficient 3-point shooting team, LIU Brooklyn coach Jack Perri said. We dont usually take a lot. We know how good -- theyre holding teams to 26 percent from 3 on the year. So, we said take the right ones and I thought, for the most part, we did.Iverson Fleming had 24 points for the Blackbirds (7-4), who were coming off a win against St. Johns. Nura Zanna had 10 points and 10 rebounds.BIG PICTURELIU Brooklyn: Against a team with a significant height advantage, the Blackbirds continued to outrebound their opponent. LIU Brooklyn entered the game with a plus-4.6 rebounding margin. The Blackbirds finished with a 38-32 edge in rebounding against the Gophers on Wednesday.Minnesota: Mason is the expected leader and steadying influence as a junior point guard and the most-experienced player on the team. Mason is bringing more than leadership, though. Hes developed an outside shot. Mason hit four 3s for the third time in four games. He had four or more 3-pointers just twice in his first 71 games.OUT OF COFFEYThe Gophers were missing freshman guard Amir Coffey, who is second on the team with 12.4 points per game. Minnesota coach Richard Pitino said Coffey is dealing with turf toe. Coffey warmed up before the game but the decision was made to sit him out.We were not sure, Pitino said of Coffeys status. I said, `Just warm up and if youre in pain, we wont play you. So we probably made that decision a couple minutes before the game. Everybody had to adjust a little bit.Senior transfer Akeem Springs made his first start for the Gophers and had eight points and five assists.REUNITEDPitino was reunited with one of his first recruits. Jerome Frink is a senior for LIU Brooklyn after transferring from Florida International, where Pitino recruited him out of St. Anthony High School in New Jersey.Jerome was the first guy I went and did an in-home visit, Pitino said. It was my first in-home visit as a head coach, not really knowing what the heck I was doing . Im proud of him. I always thought hed be a pretty good player and he showed that. I think hell be one of the better players in their league.Frink had 13 points on Wednesday against Minnesota and he entered the game leading the Blackbirds with 17.3 points per game.UP NEXTLIU Brooklyn: The Blackbirds host winless Dartmouth on Dec. 18, playing a game on their home court at the Steinberg Wellness Center for the first time since a season-opening win against John Jay.Minnesota: The Gophers have a long break before hosting Arkansas State on Dec. 23. The final game before Big Ten play isnt an easy one as Red Wolves entered Wednesday 27th in the nation in the Ratings Percentage Index and defeated Georgetown earlier this season. Adidas Shoes Clearance . -- Charline Labonte couldnt have asked for a better homecoming. Discount Adidas Shoes . Fellow centre Pavel Datsyuk remains out because of a concussion. Zetterberg has 11 goals and 19 assists for a team-high 30 points, and Datsyuk has a team-high 12 goals and 11 assists. http://www.cheapadidas.net/ .5 seconds to play in the game, Kevin Love never stopped believing that they would come out of there with a win. Cheap Adidas Shoes Wholesale ., and Rudi Swiegers of Kipling, Sask., took sixth spot on Saturday in pairs at the NHK Trophy ISU Grand Prix figure skating competition. Cheap Adidas Shoes . Siddikur, whose previous win on the circuit came in Brunei three years ago, finished his bogey-free round with a birdie on the 18th for a total of 17-under 199. Indias Shiv Chowrasia, who has finished runner-up in this tournament twice, was in second place after a 66.SASKATOON -- The Halifax Mooseheads are still searching for perfection. If they find it before the end of the MasterCard Memorial Cup, its hard to imagine them not lifting the trophy after Sundays final. Playing a nearly flawless game didnt look too bad either. Martin Frk had a hat trick and an assist and Darcy Ashley also scored twice and assisted on another goal Tuesday as Halifax dismantled the London Knights 9-2 in the final round-robin game at the tournament for both teams. "We want to bring that to the next game and strive to be even better next time," Mooseheads coach Dominique Ducharme said. "We were not perfect, we were close, we were not perfect. "Our goal is to be playing the perfect game. Our next game could be a good time to do it." That could come in the form of either Fridays semifinal or Sundays championship game, depending on what happens in Wednesdays final round-robin game between the Portland Winterhawks and the Saskatoon Blades. Stefan Fournier added a goal and an assist, while Brent Andrews, Ryan Falkenham and Luca Ciampini also scored for Halifax (2-1), which is looking for its first Memorial Cup. Top prospects Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin, who play on a line with Frk, each added three assists as the Mooseheads top three forwards combined for 10 points. "When you do the little things right, you get rewarded. Those guys skated hard and they were rewarded with opportunities," Ducharme said. "When youre sharp, when youre alive, when youre on your toes, you get those scoring chances and you put them in the net. "When you do good things, good things happen to you." Zachary Fucale made 26 saves for the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champions, who led 5-0 after the first period and 8-2 after the second before taking their foot off the gas in the third. The focus of the tournament now turns to Wednesdays game between the Western Hockey League champion Winterhawks (1-1) and the host Blades (1-1). A victory for Portland puts the Mooseheads directly into Sundays championship game, while a Saskatoon win means the Blades will go right to the final, with Halifax having to settle for a spot in the semifinal. Ducharme had a message for his players after the Mooseheads dominated from start to finish after two so-so performances to begin the tournament that decides the Canadian Hockey League title. "The next time we play I want to see the same kind of urgency, energy, battle level and composure at the same time that we had tonight," he said. Seth Griffith and Matt Rupert had the goals for the overmatched Knights (1-2), who will take on the loser of Saskatoon-Portland in Thursdays tiebreaker. The winner of that one moves on to the semi. "Its one of those games where they jumped on us early," said Knights coach Dale Hunter, whose team lost 6-3 to Portland a night earlier and were also involved in gruelling seven-game Ontario Hockey League final. "It happens. Ive been on a bigger playing field than this and a few times this kind of game has happened." Jake Patterson, who was making his first start of the tournament, stopped 6 of 11 shots for London in a disastrous first period before being replaced by Anthony Stolarz at the start of second. Stolarz was pulled after giving up five goals on 31 shots in the loss to Portland. He finished with 22 saves on Tuesday. Coming off Sundays 5-2 upset loss to Saskatoon, the determined and fresher Mooseheads scored early and ofteen against the sluggish Knights.dddddddddddd "We wanted to bounce back. We dont like the taste of losing but its not too bad to have it once in a while," MacKinnon said. "I think it gives you a bit of a wake-up call and makes you a little more hungry to win." Frk stepped out of the corner and faked a shot before finding Fournier wide open on Pattersons doorstep for an easy tap-in to start the onslaught at 7:43 of the first period. Ashley made it 2-0 just 1:43 later, popping home a rebound from in close and added his second of the night at 12:02 on a nice deflection just as a Knights penalty expired. The rout was on at 17:31 when Andrews stripped the puck from Knights defenceman Nikita Zadorov at the Halifax blue-line and moved in on a 2-on-1 before beating Patterson with a quick shot to the stickside to make it 4-0. Frk, a second-round pick of the Detroit Red Wings in 2012, then stretched the lead to five just 29 seconds later by burying a one-timer from the slot off a pass from Drouin. The Mooseheads didnt let up against their wounded opponent in the second period. After Londons Max Domi fired wide on a partial breakaway, Frk finished off a pretty passing play with MacKinnon and Drouin for his second of the night at 1:45 past Stolarz, who came on in place of Patterson. Falkenham made it 7-0 at 9:51 with a shot that chimed in of the post on a 2-on-1 as Ducharme started to roll four lines. London showed a bit of life and got one back on a nice move by Griffith on Fucale at 16:02 and Rupert cut the deficit to five 1:18 later. But any threat of a miraculous comeback was put to rest when Frk finished off another passing play with MacKinnon and Drouin for his third of the night with 1:57 left in the period. "Everyone was playing very well and the boys made nice passes for me to score goals," Frk said. "I had a pretty easy job -- three open nets." Ciampini added Halifaxs ninth goal on a two-man advantage with less than a minute to play in the third period as both teams now look ahead to the knockout round. Ducharme kept his stars on the bench for large chunks of the final period, but put MacKinnon, Drouin and Frk back out with Halifax skating 5-on-3 after he thought there was too much stickwork from the Knights in the dying minutes. "There was many power players where we didnt put them (on the ice)," Ducharme said. "At one point we thought that (the Knights) were going pretty hard on the slash and everything else so we decided to go back with them." Notes: MacKenzie Weegar added two assists for the Mooseheads. ... The best that Portland can finish is to qualify for the semifinal with a win over Saskatoon on Wednesday. ... Hockey legend and local product Gordie Howe received a standing ovation from the crowd of 9,237 at the Credit Union Centre before dropping the puck for the ceremonial faceoff. ... Alexis Normand sang the national anthem. She needed the crowd to help her finish "The Star-Spangled Banner" on Saturday after she forgot the words. Normand got a nice round of applause after Tuesdays performance of "O Canada" went off without a hitch. ... The game featured at least six potential first-round picks for next months NHL draft -- MacKinnon (No. 2 ranked North American skater) and Drouin (No. 3) from Halifax, and Londons Bo Horvat (No. 15), Domi (No. 19) and Zadorov (No. 22). Fucale, meanwhile, is rated as the No. 1 draft-eligible goaltender by NHL Central Scouting. ' ' '