ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Despite a strong second-half effort from Dayvion McKnight, Western Kentucky couldn’t complete a late comeback against Minnesota in the first game of the Asheville Championship.

The sophomore point guard scored 28 second-half points Friday to try to lead the Hilltoppers back from a deficit that was as large as 16 points, but the Golden Gophers survived WKU’s rally for a 73-69 victory at Harrah’s Cherokee Center in Asheville.

“He just got it going, and we knew somebody was going to get it going. We did a really good job, I thought, on their other guys, but you knew somebody from them was going to step up and spark them,” Minnesota coach Ben Johnson said. “It’s just one of the things where he got into a rhythm and when we got in foul trouble he just kept getting downhill and getting to the line. … But I think our guys did a good job on everybody else. Luckily, only one guy went nuts and not multiple.”

WKU (1-1) trailed by 12 at halftime against the Big Ten foe, and Minnesota (2-0) grew its lead to as large as 16 on two occasions — the latter of which came with two free throws from Jamison Battle with 10:16 to play. It was part of a 20-point night for the 6-foot-7 forward, with 18 of those coming in the first half.

From there, McKnight put the Hilltoppers on his back.

McKnight finished with a career-high 34 points to go along with nine rebounds and four assists with no turnovers in the game. He went 7-for-11 from the field in the second half and 13-of-14 from the free-throw line for WKU, which went 15-for-17 from the line in the half.

“I was just worried about coming back and trying to get the win today,” McKnight said.

WKU got its deficit to single digits with a steal and dunk from Josh Anderson with 3:49 to play to make it 68-59 and chipped away from there. The play was part of a 13-2 Hilltopper run that was capped off with two McKnight free throws with 36 seconds left that made it 70-67.

“As I say all the time, whatever (McKnight) does never surprises me — it’s who he is every day,” WKU head coach Rick Stansbury said. “He’s not effected by scoring, he’s just going to give you everything he’s got. I think you see probably a little more confidence developing in him right now because we really want to get him in that paint and we got him in there a bunch in the second half.”

The Golden Gophers got a free throw from Payton Willis with 10 seconds left to create some separation and Jairus Hamilton had a putback dunk on the other end to make it a one-possession game again with 3.2 seconds left. The Hilltoppers were forced to foul and E.J. Stephens knocked down two free throws to close out the 73-69 Minnesota victory.

It capped off an 18-point night for Stephens, who added five rebounds and 4-for-7 shooting from 3-point range. Behind Battle’s 20 points were Willis with 19 and Eric Curry with 11 points and a team-high seven rebounds. Minnesota advances to the Asheville Championship title game, where it will face Princeton at 6:30 p.m. CT Sunday.

“Second half we was much better,” Stansbury said. “I thought we were much more effective getting the ball in the paint on the pass and dribble. First half you score 23 points, second half you score 46. You’ve got to find that balance in between both of those, but you’re not going to beat a lot of people scoring 23.”

The only other Hilltopper besides McKnight to score in double figures was Hamilton with 12 points.

A big first half from Battle helped push Minnesota out to a 35-23 halftime lead. He had 18 points through the first 20 minutes, including 5-for-9 shooting from 3-point range. He accounted for eight of the Golden Gophers’ first-half triples.

Minnesota jumped out to a nine-point lead with an early 9-0 run to make it 11-2, but WKU battled back to get within three on two occasions, before the Golden Gophers pushed their lead back to 11 with a stretch of eight straight points from Battle. WKU used an 8-0 run later in the half to make it 25-21 with 3:09 until the break, but two 3-pointers from E.J. Stephens — including one at the buzzer — and one from Willis made it a 35-23 Minnesota lead at the break.

“I thought the difference in the game was the last four minutes of the first half,” Stansbury said. “Good teams, you’ve got to find a way to win the last four minutes. I think it was 25-21. … Without having the stats in front of me, it seemed like they went on a 10-2 run the last 2 minutes and 45 seconds. That’s tough to overcome when you’re playing a good team.”

The Hilltoppers turned it over seven times through the first 20 minutes to Minnesota’s six, but the Golden Gophers helped turn it into an 11-2 scoring advantage. WKU also went just 2-for-10 (20%) from beyond the arc in the first half to Minnesota’s 8-for-20 (40%), and WKU finished shooting just 5-for-19 (26%) from beyond the arc. Luke Frampton — WKU’s leading 3-point shooter last season — went 0-for-5 from deep after going 0-7 in the season-opening win over Alabama State on Tuesday.

WKU will play South Carolina at 4 p.m. CT Sunday.