SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Unranked and still unbeaten, Minnesota is taking a championship trophy back home.

The Golden Gophers have put the Big Ten on notice they expect to contend for a more prestigious title.

Blake Hoffarber hit the winning 3-pointer with 1:31 left to lift Minnesota to a 74-70 win over West Virginia on Sunday night in the final of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off tournament.

Hoffarber hit 4 3-pointers and scored 12 points for the Golden Gophers (5-0), who capped their four-day run in Puerto Rico with an early season title they hope catapults them to bigger celebrations.

Al Nolen scored 17 points and Trevor Mbakwe added 16 for perhaps the best Gophers team in four years under coach Tubby Smith. Minnesota beat No. 8 North Carolina on Friday and a Mountaineers (3-1) team fresh off a run to the Final Four.

“We know we beat a very good West Virginia team and we’re real excited to have won this tournament,” Smith said.

The Gophers went wild when the final horn sounded and did their little huddle dance in front of the bench. They led a strong number of Minnesota fans in chanting for the school and high-fived all the ones in the front row in celebration.

“Leaders lead by example and I think Blake and Al have shown that,” Smith said.

They had every reason to smile after this one. This Tubby vs. Huggy matchup was a thriller right from the tip.

There were nine lead changes and the score was tied 10 times in the title game. Hoffarber finally hit the decisive shot on a baseline 3 in front of an exuberant Minnesota bench with 1:31 to go and a 73-70 lead.

The Gophers tossed up a wild shot as the shot-clock expired, giving the Mountaineers one more chance to tie with 24.3 seconds left. But they missed two shots — Nolen was up in Casey Mitchell’s face on a 3-attempt on the first one and they missed around the basket on the next.

The Gophers hit one free-throw to secure the win and held the Mountaineers without a field goal for the final 3 minutes.

“We didn’t make any shots. It wasn’t like we didn’t have shots,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said.

Mitchell scored 27 points for West Virginia. No one else reached double digits and Mitchell cooled down the stretch.

Mbakwe was the MVP of the eight-team tournament. Mbakwe has paid off for Smith after a troubled college career saw him go from Marquette to a junior college to sitting out a season after he was hit with a felony assault charge.