The Minnesota Golden Gophers looked tight, a bit overwhelmed and out of sorts for the first three quarters of their NCAA Tournament First Round game against #13 seed Green Bay on Friday night. They were missing shots, looked lost on defense and did not loo like the team that earned themselves a #4 seed and the right to hst the first two rounds at Williams Arena. Then the fourth quarter rolled around. Minnesota would outscore the Phoenix 30-9 in the final ten minutes of the game looking every bit the part
of the team that deserved to be here and advanced to a date with #5 seed Ole Miss for a chance to go to the Sweet Sixteen on Sunday.
The first quarter was not pretty basketball for either team. Minnesota was not dialed in on their outside shooting—or frankly their inside shooting and struggled to pick up offensive rebounds and second chance opportunities. The Gophers were at atrocious 5-18 from the field in the opening quarter yet only trailed by a point at 11-10. Minnesota did do a very good job defending Minnesota native and Horizon League Player of the Year Jenna Guyer early shutting her down and causing her to pick up two quick fouls that would see her spend much of the second quarter on the bench.
Minnesota showed signs of life in the second quarter going on an 8-0 run sparked by six quick points from Mara Braun and took their largest lead of the first half at 22-15. Unfortunately after a Green Bay timeout the Phoenix would do the same going on a 10-0 run to retake a 25-22 lead and eliminate all the momentum the Gophers had been gaining. The teams would trade baskets the rest of the half and a Maddy Skorupski jumper at the buzzer would give the Phoenix a 29-26 halftime lead. Something would need to change for the Gophers to find a way to win this. They shout just 33% in the first half and were just 1-9 from three point range.
The third quarter appeared like Green Bay was going to try and run away from Minnesota. Tori McKinney picked up her third foul early in the quarter and sat for the remaining portion of it. The Phoenix went on a 10-3 run to stretch their lead to its largest point of nine at 43-34 with just over six minutes remaining in the quarter. Dawn Plitzuweit called time out and the Gophers tried to refocus. It seemed to work initially as the Gophers scored the next six points to get back within three. That’s as close as they would get as GB pulled away extending their lead again to as much as six before a Braun jumper as time winded down in the quarter would cut the lead to just four after three quarters 49-45.
Both Plitzuweit and several of the players said in their pre-tournament press conferences that the Gophers play better when they are loose and relaxed—joking around. That was missing from the first three quarters of the game on Friday. But it appeared to turn around in the huddle between the third and fourth quarters. Sohpie hart would say it postgame. “ Yeah, I think we were just being loose. I don’t know if it was something specific, but I know Coach P pointed it out, that we were laughing, we were having fun and that’s we feel like that’s when we play our best basketball, when we’re kind of just a little bit lighter. During the first part of the game, I felt like we were a little tense and then we kind of found our groove and just enjoying it together .” Plitzuweit echoed this point saying it was battle who heped the team loosen up. “Sometimes when you want something so badly, it’s just hard to relax even though you’re trying to smile and be relaxed, it’s just so hard to do that, you want something so bad. I thought finally going into the fourth quarter, I remember it being Amaya on the bench and Amaya made a comment, hey, we’ve been in this situation before. A drill that we do, three on two and a half and we start down by ten and we’re not down by ten so I think we’re in a good spot. I looked at her and I’m like you have never started down by ten. The amount that you’ve ever started down by is five. So we’re arguing back and forth and so I said no, I think you’re making that up at this point in time. Then they were kind of loose at that point in time and they were talking about, oh, we’ve done this a bunch of times, we’ll played well in the fourth quarter so we can do this. So they were sending themselves the right messages at that point.”
Whatever it was, it worked. The Gophers looked like a completely different team to start the fourth quarter. And returning to the game after sitting most of the third quarter—-it was Tori Time. McKinney took control early with her ability to drive the lane and either score or kick out and her ferocious defense. After a McKinney drive and dish to Hart she then drew an offensive foul on Green Bay. The next possession McKinney drove the lane and put a layup in herself to tie the game at 49. Then Battle drew a charge and the Gopher crown went crazy sensing that this was Minnesota’s time. Battle dished to Hart for a layup on the next possession and the Gophers were back in the lead for good. It was another Hart basket off of a gorgeous pass from Grace Grocholski and then a McKinney steal and pass to Battle for a layup, then a Braun steal and a pair of free throws after getting fouled and finally a pair of McKinney free throws. Minnesota opened the fourth quarter on a 14-0 run, had taken control, had fired up the crowd and looked like the team everyone expected to see from the beginning of the game. Green Bay tried to claw back but Braun would nail back to back threes to push the Minnesota lead to 14 and comfortably have the game in control. The Gopher defense forced a few more steals late, and the Gophers would advance with a 75-58 victory outscoring the Phoenix 30-9 in the final quarter.
While Battle led the way in scoring for Minnesota with 21 points three other Gophers joined her in double figures with Hart ending up with 19 points, Braun 16 and McKinney 10. The fifth Gopher starter Grocholski had one of the worst shooting games of her career recording zero points on 0-5 shooting. But Grocholski did contribute in other ways tying with Battle for a team high eight rebounds and recording a team high five assists. But by far the catalyst to the Gophers win was McKinney. When the Gophers had their starting five on the floor which they did for just 12:17 of the game, they were a +17 in scoring margin. They Gophers on the game by…17 points. McKinney in the final ten minutes scored six points, had three assists, picked up a pair of steals, and a blocked shot to go with a rebound. Minnesota defense ramped up in the fourth quarter and a lot of that can be attributed to McKinney. Green Bay had shot over 50 over the first three quarters but was only 4-15 in the fourth. Minnesota forced five Phoenix turnovers in the final quarter, three by point guard Kami Peppler who McKinney was guarding. It saved their season.
Sunday’s task will not get any easier as Ole Miss looked dominant for three quarters against #12 seed Gonzaga. The Rebels jumped out on Gonzaga and took a 68-37 lead after three quarters. They would sit their starters midway through the fourth quarter with a 28 point lead and Gonzaga came storming back. The Zags went on a 20-2 run cutting the Ole Miss lead to just ten with 52 seconds remaining in the game but could now claw back any further. The Rebels would win 81-66 to advance to Sunday’s Second Round Game.
That game will tip off at 1PM Sunday and will air on ESPN. We will have a full preview of that later Saturday or early Sunday morning.
