1 day Ago
For the second consecutive year, the Gophers women’s basketball team is going to a tournament championship game. Sharing the ball on offense and playing one of their best games of the season on defense, the No. 2-seeded Gophers (24-11) defeated No.
3-seeded Florida 66-52 in a WBIT semifinal game Monday at Butler University’s Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Minnesota will face Belmont (26-12) in the title game at 5 p.m.
Wednesday. Grace Grocholski, one of four starters in double figures for the Gophers, hit four of six three-point tries and scored 20 points. The Gophers advanced to the WNIT title game a year ago and have now done the same in the WBIT.
Mallory Heyer had 15 rebounds to go with 13 points. Freshman Tori McKinney scored 14 points, hitting three threes. Amaya Battle scored 10 points.
Florida (19-18) was led by a former Hopkins star, freshman point guard Liv McGill, Battle’s former high school teammate. McGill scored 18 of Florida’s 29 first-half points but did not score in the second half. The Gophers held the Gators to 35% shooting from the field and forced 16 turnovers, scoring 13 points off them.
The Gophers used a 12-0 second-quarter run to take control of the game, as it turns out, for good. Minnesota led by a point after a quarter, by eight at the half and by 12 entering the fourth quarter and never really let the Gators back in it. Grocholski hit two threes and had eight points in the first quarter, which ended with the Gophers leading despite allowing Florida seven points off seven turnovers.
Four of five Gophers starters scored in the quarter. At the other end, McGill had seven of Florida’s 15 points, but the Gators went without a field goal for the final 3:54 of the quarter. The Gophers scored the first five points of the second quarter, but Florida came back to take a 24-23 on McGill’s jumper with 6:17 left in the half.
And then the Gophers got nine consecutive stops on the defensive end. Gophers Gophers Gophers They turned it into a 12-0 run in which four players scored, building a 35-24 lead on Battle’s two free throws with 57.4 seconds left in the half.
But then McGill finished the quarter with a personal 5-2 run. She scored, and Heyer answered at the other end. Then McGill drove, scored and hit the free throw to pull the Gators within 37-29 at the half.
McGill had 18 of Florida’s 29 points. The Gophers started the second half on a 7-2 run to push their lead to 44-31 on McKinney’s three-pointer early in the third quarter. The Gophers only scored seven more points the rest of the quarter against a more aggressive Gators defense.
But Minnesota kicked up the defense, too. The Gators cut the deficit to nine late in the quarter, but the Gophers — who held Florida to 4-for-12 shooting in the quarter — were back up 52-40 entering the fourth..
