Legendary coach John Wooden roamed the sidelines and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was still known as Lew Alcindor the last time the Gophers men’s basketball team played UCLA in Los Angeles before this week. That was a different era of college basketball,

The Gophers men’s basketball team were having a bear of a time with UCLA’s defense in the first half Tuesday. The Bruins were holding opponents to a Big Ten-best 64.8 points per game, and Minnesota managed only 23 points in the opening 20 minutes — the lowest total UCLA has allowed in conference play this season.

Minnesota has a history with UCLA in the NCAA Tournament, but Wednesday night was their first matchup at Pauley Pavilion since 1967. The red-hot Gophers staged a 17-point comeback to leave LA with an impressive 64-61 win over the Bruins.