MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Golden Gophers are used to getting most of their offense from two guards. Just not the two who carried them on Friday.

DeAndre Mathieu scored 27 points and Malik Smith chipped in 19 as Minnesota defeated Nebraska-Omaha 92-79.

The Gophers’ two leading scorers didn’t exactly have off nights — Andre Hollins scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, while Austin Hollins added 10 points and six assists. But Mathieu and Smith, both newcomers to Minnesota this season, combined for 31 points in the second half as the Gophers (10-2) finally pulled away from the pesky Mavericks.

“We’ve got a lot of scorers and we’re a great shooting team when we take good shots,” Austin Hollins said. “Malik was really hot tonight and he gave us a spark off the bench with a lot of energy and DeAndre was attacking and that was tough for Omaha in transition.”

Alex Phillips, Devin Patterson and CJ Carter each scored 15 to lead the Mavericks (8-4), who had won five straight games in just their third year as a Division I program.

“This is probably the deepest backcourt we’ll play this season,” Carter said. “The guard play was just fantastic. They had shooters, and they can drive. We just couldn’t stop them.”

Minnesota, which was playing its first game in 10 days after taking a break for finals week, allowed the Mavericks to hit 10 of 16 3-pointers in the first half, including a buzzer-beater by Caleb Steffensmeier that tied the game at 44-all at the break.

But a key halftime adjustment helped Minnesota limit Nebraska-Omaha to 0-for-8 shooting from beyond the arc in the final 20 minutes.

“The emphasis was, chase them off the line, make them put the ball on the floor and try to make them make a play against our bigs,” Andre Hollins said. “They only scored four field goals in the first half. We wanted to get them to try to make plays instead of just looking for that 3-point shot. I think we did a good job of that in the second half.”

The Gophers also got a huge lift off the bench from Smith, a senior who transferred from Florida International when head coach Richard Pitino left FIU to take the Minnesota job last summer. Smith scored all 10 points in a 10-4 spurt that pushed the Gophers to their biggest lead of the game, 71-60 with 11:27 to play. It was part of a 6-for-10 shooting night for Smith, including 5-for-8 on 3-pointers.

“He takes big shots,” Pitino said. “That’s why I felt he could come from FIU to this level, because he’s got unbelievable confidence. . He’s extremely confident and he just shows when you play that confident you can do really good things.”

Nebraska-Omaha quickly responded, with Justin Simmons making a jump shot and two free throws and Matt Hagerbaum throwing down a dunk in traffic to buoy the Mavericks. Minnesota missed the front end of two one-and-one opportunities, and Patterson’s runner made it an 8-0 run and a 71-68 Gophers lead.

Smith then knocked down another 3-pointer, but Carter converted a three-point play at the other end to cut the Gophers’ lead back to three.

That’s when Mathieu took over. He scored nine of Minnesota’s next 11 points and showed off the full range of his offensive game in the process. The 5-foot-9 junior-college transfer converted a drive to the basket, hit an outside jumper, got to the free throw line and hit one of two, and finished the streak with a floating, one-handed runner that put Minnesota on top 85-79.

“When they started going under screens and pushing up on me, I felt like it was time to attack,” said Mathieu, whose previous season-high was 17. “Basically they were just saying, ‘You’re a passer, you’re a distributor,’ and I felt like I had to be an attacker today.”

It was an example of the talent gap that Nebraska-Omaha is still looking to close as it earns its Division I credentials.

“It was the most depth (at guard) that we’ve seen,” Mavericks coach Derrin Hansen said. “Tonight’s been the first time there’s been three guards on the floor at one time that could keep putting pressure on us all the time. That kind of wore into us in the second half.”