The Gopher men and Gopher women’s basketball teams swept a pair of games yesterday, but the simple fact that each got a win is as far as the similarities go. The women travelled to Tempe, AZ, where they clobbered what used to be a stellar basketball program, the Oregon State Beavers, 73-38. The men stayed home at Williams Arena, where they squeaked out a hard-fought 59-56 win over a scrappy 2-2 mid-major, the Yale Bulldogs.
Minnesota Gopher women 73 Oregon State 48
The women might have expected a tough game against Oregon State. The Beavers finished 2nd to UConn in the NCAA tournament in 2016, and went to the Elite Eight last year, where they lost to South Carolina 70-58. But, when Oregon State was abandoned by all odf its Pac 10 opponents (along with Washington State) last year, 4 of their 6 starters transferred out. So it is across the spectrum of Beavers sports. The football team went 8-5 last year and played Notre Dame in the Sun Bowl. Now they’re 4-6 and with games remaining with Washington State and Boise State, they’re unlikely to become bowl eligible.
But women’s basketball was especially hit. Three of the outbound transfers–6-4 soph Reagan Beers, 6-3 soph Timea Gardner and 5-11 senior Talia Van Oelhoffen–are rated as the #2, #6 and #10 best transfers of the year. They’re now playing at Oklahoma State, UCLA and USC, respectively.
But, Oregon State stayed close through 13-13 and 23-20. But the Gophers pulled away from 13-13 to lead 30-20 at the half as Amaya Battle and Mara Braun scored 5 points each in the 2nd quarter. The Gophers won the 3rd quarter 22-16 to lead 52-36, then made a rout of it with a 21-2 advantage in the 4th quarter.
The Gophers once again showed vastly greater depth than what they had a year ago. Annika Stewart came off the bench to score a team high 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting. And Taylor Woodson also came off the bench to score 9 points with 7 rebounds and 2 steals. The starting 5 remained as usual, and shot 17-of-42. The bench shot better at 12-of-25. The Gophers shot a respectable 43% overall but just 28% (5-of-18) on 3s. The starters were 3-of-12, the bench 2-of-6. The starters were a respectable 4-of-5 from the line, but the bench was just 6-of-11. Odd numbered shots remain a work in progress for the Gopher women.
But they dominated every other aspect of the game with a 13-2 edge in 2nd chance points, a 10-3 edge in points off turnovers. It was 34-16 in the paint, 32-11 off the bench, 10-1 on fast break points.
It’s not obvious that the Gophers will get a tougher test today against the SMU Mustangs. SMU is 2-2 with no power 5 wins. Of course, the Gophers do not yet have a power 5 win, either, what with Oregon State being relegated for the time being. SMU is shooting just 40 and 27% with 14 turnovers. The Gophers are now shooting 45 and 34% with an average of 8 turnovers. Gametime is 1 p.m. with no TV.
Minnesota Gopher men 59 Yale 56
You’d like of course to say that the Gophers beat the Ivy League Bulldogs without having to say that they came from behind, having trailed 29-19 at the half and only taking the lead for good at 51-50 at 3:45. You’d like to say that they did something other than fight and scrap to get the win. You’d like to say they dominated their mid-major opponent, who came into the game with a 2-2 record. But, no, they trailed 29-19 at the half and still trailed 50-48 and they had to scrap like crazy to get the win on their home court. But, to their credit, that is of course what they did.
The big difference-maker was of course the awesome Dawson Garcia. Everybody knows you don’t have to do anything special to guard the rest of the Gophers, but that you have to stop or at least slow down Dawson Garcia. Yale threw everything at him including a kitchen sink, I think. He shot just 6-of-17–2-of-4 3s including a big one that brought the Gophers within 38-37, just 4-of-13 2s. But he also got to the FT line and made 10-of-12, including 6 straight in the final 3 minutes.
The 2nd big difference-maker was the Gophers 3 turnovers vs. Yale’s 14, and the Gophers 15-2 edge in points off turnovers.
#3 was the Gophers 17-10 edge on the offensive boards and 17-9 on 2nd chance points. The Gophers do not win this game without Frank Mitchell’s 6 offensive boards.
#4 was Brennan Rigsby sort of, partially breaking out of a shooting slump by making 4-of-6 2-point shots. On the other hand, he made 1-of-4 3s and just 4-of-7 FT so, sorry, kinda, sorta. Still, his 15 points were crucial because nobody else scored more than 7 points and, after Garcia and Rigsby, the rest of the Gophers shot 9-for-28 from the field, 0-for-9 on 3s, and 2-for-7 from the line.
And, so, one can take little in the way of encouragement from this win, except that the Gophers scrapped when they had to scrap. They did the little things. But, the big things, like putting the ball in the basket, remains a major challenge for this team. They return to action against 3-2 Cleveland State, with a 101-53 loss at Michigan, on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Barn. Hopefully we’ll be able to say the Gophers won without having to talk about comebacks and scrappiness.