As Tubby Smith watched his three-guard lineup of Al Nolen, Lawrence Westbrook and Blake Hoffarber get Minnesota off to a second straight blazing start, a thought crossed the coach’s mind.

“Maybe we stumbled upon something here,” Smith said.

Hoffarber had 18 points and Minnesota scored the first 18 points of the game in a 94-64 victory over Morgan State on Tuesday night.

Westbrook added 14 points, four assists and four steals and Nolen had five points, six assists, five rebounds and two steals for the Gophers (6-3).

Smith debuted the three-guard look against Brown last weekend, and the Gophers led by as many as 37 points in the first half of that game. They were just as dominant at the start of this one.

Using a full-court press, the Gophers led 9-0 before Morgan State even managed a field goal attempt and the Bears shot just 26 percent in the decisive first half.

The Gophers even handed the Bears their first points of the game — literally. During a scramble for a rebound under the basket, Gophers center Colton Iverson inadvertently knocked the ball into the Morgan State basket. Kevin Thompson was credited with the basket as the closest Bear, and MSU was finally on the board after 8:31.

“We were up big and that’s just going to take the life out of them,” Westbrook said.

Thompson had 17 points and a career-high 19 rebounds for Morgan State (5-4). Reggie Holmes scored 26 points and had a career-high five steals, but shot just 9 of 28 from the field.

Morgan State, which made the NCAA tournament after winning the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference title last season, missed its first 10 shots and had six turnovers in the first seven minutes.