The Minnesota Golden Gophers allready lost one game this season due to their complete inability to break a full court press. Wednesday night in Eugene they nearly lost a second, but the Gophers clung on for
a 65-60 victory over the Oregon Ducks to move to 13-6 overall and back to .500 in conference play at 4-4.
Minnesota got a boost in their lineup as Tori McKinney returned to action after missing the two previous games with concussion symptoms. She was wearing a new brace around her shoulders/neck and it appeared to have a definite impacts on her shooting ability as she scored just 4 points shooting 1-8 from the field in the game. But her defensive efforts were much needed and her eight rebounds were the second highest total on the team.
Minnesota got their offense early from Amaya Battle, and late from Grace Grocholski who snapped out of her two game funk. Both team got off to a slow start shooting just over 30% in the opening stanza. Oregon took a 14-11 lead after the opening quarter, but the Gophers immediately opened the second quarter with a 6-0 run with a pair of Battle baskets and a Sophie Hart layup. Minnesota dominated the play in the paint as they have done when they have been successful this season scoring all 16 of their second quarter points in the paint. It was crucial on a night Minnesota was terrible from long range finishing the first half just 1-12 from beyond the arc. Minnesota took a three point lead into half 27-24.
The third quarter was much of the same. Minnesota went on an early run before Oregon cut the gap with a 10-2 run to actually retake the lead midway through the quarter. The teams would trade buckets the rest of the way and Minnesota would retake the lead by just two points at 44-42. Minnesota picked up five offensive rebounds in the quarter including a pair by Finau Tonga who earned herself four points on second chance opportunities. Battle continued to propel the Gophers with seven more points in the quarter to push her total to 15 points through three.
The fourth quarter was once again the Grace Grocholski show. As she has done multiple times this season, she went off in the fourth quarter scoring ten points including bracketing a Gopher 11-0 run with a layup and a huge three pointer to put Minnesota up 55-42 with just over six minutes to play. Five more points in a row for Grace pushed the Gophers lead to 12 at 62-50 with 2:35 to play, and it appeared Minnesota had the game in hand.
Then came the near unravelling. Minnesota turned the ball over five times in the final 2:17 on the press allowing Oregon to claw back and get within three points at 63-60 with 54 seconds to play. Even then, Minnesota continued to try and give the game away as the Gophers insanely passe the ball to Hart in the back court after a timeout and she attempted to dribble the ball across half court losing it. The ball ended up in Brylee Glenn’s hands who throw it directly to an Oregon player and the Ducks somehow missed a 2-on-1 layup that would have cut the lead to just one point. Battle blocked a shot after an Oregon offensive rebound and Minnesota retained possession. Minnesota tried to run as much time as possible off the clock on their final possession but Battle was stripped as she drove with 12 seconds left and Oregon came up with it. They would have a chance to tie the game, but in the scrum the ball was knocked out and bounced right to Glenn who found Hart for a layup with 8 seconds left to ice the game for good. Minnesota escaped with a 65-60 win by the skin of their teeth.
Battle led all scorers with 20 points with Grocholski finishing with 19. Hart added 14 herself. No other Gopher scored more than four points. The Gophers dominated the scoring in the paint leading that 46-16. The win goes down as a Q1 win for NCAA Tournament purposes, the first of the season for the Gophers moving them to 1-5 in that category.
Minnesota returns to action Sunday afternoon at 2 PM against Wisconsin at Williams Arena. The Badgers are coming off of a pair of huge close wins over Oregon in double OT and over #24 Nebraska 63-60 on Wednesday night. The Badgers have been great in Madison but have struggled on the road losing to Marquette and Northwestern both who the Gophers dominated. While it’s too early for must win’s. Sundays game is one the Gophers need to win to solidify their NCAA Tournament case as we hit the midpoint of the Big Ten schedule.
