Minnesota now awaits to see if they get a WNIT berth, or if their season is over.
The Minnesota Golden Gophers women’s basketball team entered their Second Round game in the Big Ten Tournament against the Michigan Wolverines hoping that they could continue the magic they found against Rutgers the night before. Unfortunately that was not to be as the Gophers once again struggled on offense and could not string together enough stops to keep the game close as the Wolverines would run away with a 76-57 win.
When Minnesota defeated the Wolverines in Ann Arbor in January the Gophers shot the lights out. Minnesota was going to need to have a good outside shooting game again with their depleted roster to compete with the much taller Wolverines and it didn’t happen. Minnesota began the game thinking they could play the same way against Michigan as they did last night against Rutgers. They couldn’t. Amaya Battle tried driving the lane a few times but every single time she was met by a pair of Wolverines bigs who had 6 inches on her and didn’t let her get a good shot off. Meanwhile the Gophers kept getting crushed on the boards. Michigan had a 9-2 edge at the first TV timeout. The Wolverines kept getting the ball inside to their posts who took advantage of the younger, shorter Gopher bigs and got points in the paint. Battle continued to try and put the rest of her teammates on her back again, but this time the load was just too heavy. She sparked the crowd and her team when she drained a Caitlin Clarkesque 30 footer at the buzzer, but Minnesota still trailed 23-12 after one quarter. Michigan dominated inside scoring 12 of their 23 points in the paint.
Minnesota scored the first four points of the second quarter on a pair of Ayanna Johnson baskets and forced the Wolverines into some poor shots. Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico called timeout 2:45 into the quarter to try and regroup her team and stem the Gophers growing momentum. The Gophers suddenly began to crash the boards and get both some key offensive and defense rebounds.
The Gophers appeared to have gotten another stop and kept the momentum but after a lose ball was originally called to have been off a Wolverine player, the referee from the far backside reversed the call and gave the ball back to Michigan. The Wolverines promptly drained a three seconds later to go back up by double digits. After a poor offensive possession where the Gophers just dribbled around the perimeter for 25 seconds until Heyer drove the ball and picked up an offensive foul, the Wolverines would tack on another three a possession later go go up 13 at 29-16 when Gopher coach Dawn Plitzuweit called a timeout of her own.
The Wolverines hot shooting of their own calmed down in the rest second quarter but on offense Minnesota just could not get out of their own way and take advantage. They missed shots from outside, they missed shots from inside. They committed offensive fouls. Minnesota shot 31% in both quarters and just could not keep up. Meanwhile the Wolverines spread their points around. They had seven players score in the first half led by Lauren Hansen with ten. Battle led the Gophers with nine points and Heyer led all players with nine rebounds, but at halftime Michigan led 37-24.
Minnesota switched things up by coming out in a 2-3 zone to begin the second half. It didn’t work. Michigan immediately broke the zone for layups on back to back possessions and a three on the next. In fact the Wolverines would score on 5 straight possessions to open the third quarter before Plitzuweit called timeout with the Wolverines stretching the lead to 19 at 48-29. On offense the Gophers continued to try and pound the ball inside to Johnson or Battle would drive and try to create her own shot. But they got zero help from anyone else. The Gophers scored 17 points in the quarter with 14 coming from a combination of Johnson and Battle. They were 5-5 from the field in the third quarter while the rest of the Gopher roster went 1-5. After three quarters the Wolverines led 58-41 and had the game comfortably in control.
Minnesota desperately needed to try and find something to spark their offensive output to have any chance at coming back in the game, but it just wouldn’t come. Battle made the hustle play of the game running back and rejecting what appeared to be an easy Wolverine layup well off the court, but Minnesota just could not get enough consistent stops and score points of their own on the other end. Ajok Madol made her first appearance of the tournament late in the third quarter and played most of the fourth and tried to provide some life off the bench, but her 11 points would not be enough. Michigan was just too tough and would advance with a 76-57 win. Battle would finish with 22 points to lead the Gophers in the losing effort. The Wolverines were led by Laila Phelps who finished with 23 points including 16 in the second half.
Minnesota’s usual second and third options were completely shut down by the Wolverines. Grace Grochloski scored her first points with 4:59 left in the game and finished shooting 1-7 from the field including 0-3 from beyond the arc. Heyer controlled the boards in the final three quarters and ended up with a game high 17, but on the offensive end she struggled mightily again in hat has become a theme since Mara Braun went down. Heyer finished with just two points on 1-5 from the field and 0-4 from three. As a team the Gophers shot just 4-17 from beyond the arc—not a recipe for winning almost any game, much less one against a quality opponent.
Minnesota finishes their season with a 16-15 record and now will wait a week and a half to see if they may be given a Women’s NIT berth or if their season is now over. Michigan moves on and will play #3 seed Indiana in the final quarterfinal on Friday night.