It’s not an absolute must win, but it’s close
The Minnesota Golden Gophers women’s basketball tram closes out the home season on Wednesday night against the Washington Huskies. The Gophers will celebrate Senior Night by honoring their four seniors in a postgame ceremony. But the best thing they could do for their seniors is find a way to pick up a win against a hungry Washington team who just like the Gophers is flirting with the NCAA Tournament bubble. One team’s NCAA hopes will get a boost at the end of Wednesday night, and the others will be closer to life support then they have been all season long.
The Gophers enter Wednesday night’s home finale with a 20-8 overall record and an 8-8 record in Big Ten play. That places them in a tie with Iowa for 11th place in the conference, one game ahead of the 16-12 overall and 7-9 in conference Huskies. While the chance to win out and leap into the top nine in the conference an earn a first round bye in the Big Ten Tournament still exists, it will be a steep road for the Gophers who would need to jump over at least two teams who own the tiebreakers against Minnesota in Nebraska and Iowa. So more realistically the Gophers are trying to get as close to the #11 seed is possible to have an easier opening round game against a team like Wisconsin or Purdue and avoid a potential rematch against Washington the following week, and to avoid a potential quarterfinal against USC or UCLA.
As of the most recent NCAA Tournament Bracketology, the Gophers were still in good shape as one of the last teams in without needing to play in the First Four. A win against the Huskies may nearly lock down a NCAA spot, but a loss puts them squarely on the bubble and likely needing a road upset of a ranked Michigan State team or a pair of Big Ten Tournament wins to feel safe.
Minnesota has spread their scoring through their depth this season. The Gophers still has three players averaging in double figures with another two just below ten points per game, not accounting for Mara Braun. Grace Grocholski and Amaya Battle each are averaging 12 points per game for the Gophers with Grocholski tying a career high with 27 a week ago at Purdue. Tori McKinney has had a good freshman season and is averaging 10 points per game headed into the final week of the regular season. Minnesota’a pair of bigs in Sophie Hart and Annika Stewart are just below double figures scoring 9.7 and 9.4 points per game respectively.
The Gophers will need to try and shut down Washington’s Elle Ladine to have success Wednesday night. The junior is shooting 46.9% and ranks seventh in the Big Ten in total points scored with 468. In her last two games against Rutgers and Nebraska, she averaged 28.0 points on 62.9 percent shooting with 5.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists between both wins. Other notable players for the Huskies include Sayvia Sellers (15.5 points per game, shooting 47.2%) and Dalayah Daniels (12.2 points per game, shooting 57%, 6.9 rebounds per game).
Washington comes in off of a big road win at Nebraska last weekend. The Cornhuksers had just won an overtime thriller over Oregon the game before and may have been primed for a let down, but this Huskies squad knows their season is on the line and is playing like t down the stretch.
This will be the 6th meeting in history between Minnesota and Washington. The Gophers won the initial matchup in 1982 but have lost four straight to the Huskies including their most recent game in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament in 2006.
Minnesota will honor their four seniors postgame on Wednesday. Stewart, Alexsia Rose, Maggie Czinzno and Jordan Brooks all will play their final game in The Barn. Only Czinano played her entire career in the Maroon and Gold with the other three transferring in just this season.
Tip is set for 7PM and will stream on B1G+.