Minnesota Manhandles New Mexico

Travarus Bennett is doing his best to extend Minnesota’s season.

Bennett set career highs with 23 points and 15 rebounds, and Jerry Holman scored a career-best 22 points Wednesday night as Minnesota dominated New Mexico inside in a 96-62 victory in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament at Minneapolis.

“Some people felt that since we didn’t make the NCAAs, we wanted our season to be over,” Bennett said. “I think our play in the second half erased any doubt of that.”

Rick Rickert added 18 points for Minnesota, which closed the game with a 36-10 run. The Lobos were scoreless for a six-minute stretch.

“They were picking us apart,” Lobo Coach Fran Fraschilla said.

The Golden Gophers (18-12) advanced to the second round, where they’ll play host Monday to either Richmond or Montana State.

Ruben Douglas had three first-half three-pointers among his 22 points for New Mexico (16-14).

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Louisiana State 63, Iowa 61--Ronald Dupree scored 19 points and made the go-ahead basket with 1:22 left at Iowa City, Iowa.

LSU (19-14) blew a nine-point lead in the first half. But the Tigers came back to end a disappointing season for Iowa (19-16), which lost 13 of its last 20.

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Louisiana Tech 83, Louisiana Lafayette 63--Gerrod Henderson scored 22 points as Louisiana Tech (21-9) won at Ruston, La.

Tech led 36-27 at the half after shooting 48% to 31% by Lafayette (20-11).

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South Carolina 74, Virginia 67--Rolando Howell matched his career high with 24 points as South Carolina (19-14) won at Charlottesville, Va.

Virginia (17-12) has lost 12 consecutive postseason games.

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Vanderbilt 59, Houston 50--Reserve Sam Howard scored 14 points as Vanderbilt (17-14) had little problem with Houston (18-15) at Nashville.

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Tennessee Tech 64, Georgia St. 62--Cameron Crisp scored 17 points, including a jumper with 4.8 seconds left, to give Tennessee Tech (25-6) the win over Georgia State (20-11) at Cookeville, Tenn.

Tennessee Tech, which reached a postseason tournament for the first time since the 1985 NIT, advanced to a meeting Friday night with Dayton.

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Dayton 80, Detroit 69--Ramod Marshall scored 23 points to lead Dayton (21-10) over Detroit (18-13) at Dayton, Ohio.

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Richmond 74, Wagner 67--Mike Skrocki scored four straight points to give the Spiders (20-13) the lead for good late in overtime at Richmond, Va. Wagner finishes 19-10.

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Syracuse 76, St. Bonaventure 66--Preston Shumpert scored 28 points and Hakim Warrick had 14 as Syracuse (21-11) beat St. Bonaventure (17-13) at Syracuse, N.Y.