Northwestern was favored in its game at Minnesota on Saturday. But you wouldn't have known it by what transpired on the floor.

Undermanned Minnesota ran away with the game early and secured a dominant 77-60 win over Northwestern.

The Gophers, just 3-12 in the Big Ten, were missing Payton Willis, their starting guard and second-leading scorer. It was their fourth game in a week after a pair of games against Penn State, split by a matchup with Ohio State.

Yet the Gophers eviscerated the Cats, using a zone to stifle Northwestern's offense and making it rain behind the arc to balloon their lead. After Northwestern jumped out to a 6-2 lead early, the Gophers outscored the Wildcats 41-21 to build a commanding 43-27 halftime advantage.

While the Cats made an early push in the second half and cut the lead to seven, the Gophers swiftly regained control and put the lead back in double-digits for the rest of the game. Their biggest lead was 22 with 6:56 to play.

The Cats were led by Pete Nance and Boo Buie, who scored 18 and 16 points, respectively.

The Gophers did most of their damage with the dynamic duo of Luke Loewe and Jamison Battle. Loewe scored 24 points and was 6-of-10 from three-point range. Battle had a double-double with 21 points and 14 rebounds.

Here are our takeaways from an ugly loss that dropped Northwestern's record below .500 at 12-13 overall, and 5-11 in Big Ten play:

The defensive effort was abysmal: We have been praising Northwestern all season for its effort, even as the losses mounted. That wasn't the case today, as the Cats showed no fight, particularly on the defensive end.

Minnesota shot the lights out. The Gophers were certainly hot from the outside, but it helped that they were getting open looks whenever they wanted them.

Northwestern had done an impressive job defensively against Purdue, holding Jaden Ivey to eight points -- less than half his average -- on 2-of-12 shooting. But the Wildcats weren't able to keep the Gophers in front of them on Saturday as they were run out of the building.

Loewe and Battle combined to go 17-of-26 (65%) for 43 points.

Northwestern was flummoxed by Minnesota's zone: Northwestern's offense struggled from tip to buzzer in the face of the Golden Gophers' zone.

The Cats often passed it around passively before settling for a mid-range jumper. Nance, who went 7-for-14 from the floor, was able to get some of his shots to fall, but the rest of the roster often failed to cash in. The final tally of 60 points was tied for Northwestern's third-lowest output of the season.

The Cats played 11 players, and seven of them scored three or fewer points. Nance got most of his points with the aforementioned jumpers around the elbows, and Buie got his from the perimeter. But the 'Cats never seriously challenged Minnesota's zone or made the Gophers sweat outside of the game's start and the quick push at the start of the second half.

This game was a back breaker for Northwestern: Minnesota was supposed to kick off a five-game stretch of unranked Big Ten opponents to close out the season for the Wildcats. What little hope the Cats had for a positive end to the season, or a miniscule dream of momentum heading into a Big Ten tournament and any potential for landing on the March Madness bubble, rode almost entirely on their going 5-0 down the stretch.

A 77-60 loss at Minnesota disqualified both of those opportunities. The Cats have been the master of the close loss this season, with nine single-digit losses in the Big Ten. This looked like a team that has been worn down by their conference schedule and six out of their last 10 games against ranked opponents.

Minnesota entered this game with only three conference wins, was coming off a busy stretch of three games in six days and had the previously mentioned injury to Willis, a crucial player for them. Rather than take advantage, Northwestern got dismantled and outplayed in almost every facet of the game.

Northwestern shot 37% from the field, Minnesota shot 56%. Northwestern shot 33% from three, Minnesota shot 48%. Northwestern shot 50% from the free-throw line, Minnesota shot 67%. Northwestern got 30 rebounds, Minnesota got 37.

This brutal result at Minnesota is the end of the line for Northwestern's preseason high hopes. The past several years of developing upperclassmen stars like Buie and Nance, and head coach Chris Collins adamantly asking for patience, have yielded another season that will find the Cats finish below .500 in the lower tier of the Big Ten standings.