It’s Minnesota’s first ranked win since 2019
The University of Minnesota Golden Gophers women’s basketball team did something on Sunday they have not done since 2019. They defeated a ranked opponent. Minnesota withstood several runs by the USC Trojans and returned serve with runs of their own to pick up a 63-62 win at Williams Arena to move to 3-2 in Big Ten play and 12-4 overall. It’s Minnesota’s first win over a ranked opponent in 37 tries going back to a home win over #19 Arizona State in November 2019.
When we said it was a game of runs—well that was underselling it. Minnesota opened the game on a 10-0 run jumping out on the Trojans and would maintain that lead through the end of the first quarter leading 18-10 after ten minutes. The second ten minutes would be ALL USC. After a Mara Braun basket with 9:11 left in the quarter made the score 23-13 Gophers, the Trojans took over. USC would go on a 19-0 run to take a 32-23 lead over the next six minutes. Freshman guard Jazzy Davidson scored 10 of those 19 points on her own. She would add five more to score 15 of her 21 in the quarter. Minnesota would go on one final run at the end of the quarter closing it out with five straight points from Braun and Hart to cut the USC halftime lead to 34-30.
The runs came once again in the third quarter with USC throwing the first blow, and the Gophers countering. The Trojans opened the third quarter with an 11-2 run extending their lead to 45-32 just 2:30 into the quarter. Davidson and senior Kara Dunn traded buckets as the Gophers tried to figure out how to counter on defense. Then—they did. Minnesota would go on a 14-0 run punctuated by ten straight points from junior Grace Grocholski to take a 46-45 lead and send the Barn into a frenzy. USC’s Dunn would hit a three pointer at the end of the quarter after a Grocholski turnover and the Trojans would take a 48-46 lead after three quarters.
After trading baskets to open the fourth quarter with the score knotted at 50, Minnesota once again went on a run. This time it was the Brylee Glenn and Grocholski show. After Glenn made one of two free throws and the Gophers got a stop, Grochloski would make it 53-50 with a great move into a the paint ending un a turn around jumper. Then, Glenn stole the Trojan in-bound pass, and the ball gets around the arc to Grocholski who drains a three to put Minnesota up 56-50. Grace had scored 17 of Minnesota’s last 20 points and put the Gophers ahead for good.
USC would cut the lead to 56-54, but a Glenn free throw and a Sophie Hart layup after an offensive rebound of a Grocholski free throw miss once again stretched the lead to five with 1:11 to play.
Things got a bit tense as Minnesota only went 4-6 from the free throw line in the final minute and Dunn scored the final eight points for the trojans, but her final three pointer with less that a second left on the clock would not be enough and Minnesota hung on for the 63-62 win.
Grocholski led the way for the Gophers with 25 points, eight rebounds and a trio of steals. This came after she was honored pregame for going over 1,000 career points earlier this season against Wyoming. She is the third Gopher to hit that milestone allready this season following Amaya Battle and Braun. Hart had a sneaky great game adding 15 points and six rebounds while Braun finished with just six points but a tea leading 10 rebounds. The Gopher defense was tight forcing 17 USC turnovers while only committing nine themselves. USC shot 44% overall from the field, but 45.5% from three to keep them in the game. The Gophers continued their recent trend of dominating in the paint with 36 points in the box compared to just 10 for the Trojans. The Gophers controlled the boards as well with an overall rebounding edge 40-32 and a massive 18-6 edge on offensive rebounds which led to the Gophers dominating the second chance points stat 23-2! Full highlights from the huge win are below.
Minnesota next hosts #4 UCLA Wednesday night at 7 PM at The Barn before heading to the Pacific Northwest for a pair of games.
Category: General Sports
