Gophers women’s basketball bows out of Big Ten tournament with 76-57 loss to Michigan
Unlike the night before, there was little drama at Target Center on Thursday night.
This time, for the Gophers women's basketball team, there wasn't a strong start. The shots didn't fall, the defense could not slow the Michigan Wolverines.
On the second day of the Big Ten tournament the 11th-seeded Gophers' run ended with a 76-57 loss to the sixth-seeded Wolverines (19-12), whose defense ground the Gophers offense to a halt.
In a rather sharp contrast to Wednesday's victory over Rutgers, this time the Gophers had another of the slow starts that have plagued them since leading scorer Mara Braun and, eventually, starting center Sophie Hart were lost to injury.
The Gophers missed eight of their first 10 shots. They were behind by double figures before the game was 6 minutes old. They were down 11 after a quarter, by 13 at halftime, 17 entering the fourth quarter, by as many as 19 in the game.
All-conference guard Laila Phelia scored seven of her 23 points to start the second half for the Wolverines.
Minnesota (16-15) shot 21-for-54 against the Big Ten's best scoring defense, hitting four of 17 three-pointers. Looking more like the team that had back-to-back losses to Iowa and Penn State to end the regular season than they one that came out of the blocks hard against Rutgers, Minnesota just couldn't score enough to keep up with Michigan.
The Wolverines moved on to play third-seeded Indiana in the last of four quarterfinal games Friday.
Michigan got 14 points from Lauran Hanson and 11 from Cameron Williams. Phelia made seven of 14 shots and two of three three-pointers.
Once again, point guard Amaya Battle had a strong game for the Gophers. After having a career night against Rutgers – 32 points, seven assists and five rebounds with no turnovers – she again led the Gophers with 22 points. In two games at Target Center she had 54 points and just four turnovers.
But she didn't get a lot of help. Freshman center Ayianna Johnson had a strong game, scoring 12 points. Ajok Madol came off the bench to score 11. Those three players were a combined 16-for-32. The rest of the team? Just 5-for-22.
The Gophers lost for the fifth time in six games and for the 11th time in 13 games.
In their last six games the Gophers have averaged 55.8 points per game and scored 60 or fewer points four times.
Hanson hit three of four shots – and went 2-for-3 on threes – to score eight first-quarter points as the Wolverines led by as many 14 before Battle hit a three from just past the mid-court line at the buzzer to make it an 11-point game.
That sparked a mini-run that saw the Gophers pull within seven early in the second quarter.
But, out of a timeout, Michigan re-took the momentum.
Since Hart has been out with a sore left hip since the Gophers victory over Northwestern Feb. 17, Minnesota struggled to defend in the paint. Wednesday the Gophers won despite having Rugters post player Destiny Adams go off for 31 points and 24 rebounds.
Thursday Michigan scored 36 points in the paint.
