It was early March this year when the Gophers and Lady Lions met in a contest that got out of hand in mere minutes.
At the end of the first quarter, the Gophers trailed by 12 points. At halftime, they were down by 28. After three, they were losing by 43 points. And by the time the final buzzer sounded, it was 56-point defeat. The drubbing was one that provided motivation in the months to come.
The Gophers did their best to return the favor on Saturday, outpacing the Lady Lions from tip off. Minnesota began the game with a 9-0 run on its way to a 90-54 to win over Penn State on Saturday evening at Williams Arena.
“I think it was on everybody’s mind, even the players that weren’t here last year, like they took it personal,” junior Amaya Battle said of last season’s loss. “We all kind of took it personal and we just remembered it throughout, prepping for them.”
Everything they did to prepare for the Lady Lions (9-4, 0-1 Big Ten) seems to have paid off.
The Gophers (13-1, 1-1 Big Ten) were led by a three-headed attack from Battle, freshman Tori McKinney and transfer Annika Stewart. McKinney scored a game-high 25 points with Battle adding 17 and Stewart 15. Mallory Heyer also finished in double digits, scoring 11 in the win.
Minnesota finished the day shooting 56%, including 9 of 22 on 3-pointers (41%) on its way to its first win in Big Ten play this season. Both McKinney and Heyer each had three of those 3s.
McKinney easily eclipsed her career-high (17, set in the Gophers’ last game), scoring 15 of her 25 points in the first half and helping the Gophers to a 26-point halftime lead.
“It’s just my teammates — they’re feeding me, they’re giving me the passes that I need and then … they’re just giving me the confidence but at the end of the day, this team, it all starts on the defensive end,” McKinney said.
As impressive as the Gophers’ offense was on Saturday, the defense might have been just as impressive — or perhaps even more so. Minnesota effectively neutralized the Lady Lions’ top two scoring threats, Gracie Merkle and Moriah Murray all day.
Merkle, Penn State’s center, came into the day averaging 20.3 points per game, was held off the scoreboard entirely and Murray, who entered averaging 15 points per game, scored just two. Merkle attempted just one shot in the game, which came at the very beginning and Murray didn’t score her first points of the game until near the end of the third quarter.
“They were definitely a priority coming into the game, and I think our post players and everybody on the team did a great job of being intentional, trying to limit their shots, limiting their opportunities,” Battle said.
In their place, Gabby Elliott provided a bulk of Penn State’s offense, finishing with a team-high 19 points. She was the only Lady Lion to eclipse double digits.
The Gophers, who lost their first Big Ten game to Nebraska earlier this month, have been the conference’s best team at limiting turnovers and were again on Saturday — they turned the ball over just 12 times to Penn State’s 24 and scoring 30 points off those turnovers — on their way to their big win.
“Penn state is really good at making you play sped up at all times … but this was a game where were not sped up and we attacked and we were in control and we finished,” Minnesota coach Dawn Plitzuweit said. “Those are a lot of things that have to happen all at the same time, but I thought our young ladies played a very, very good basketball game and understand the urgency that we need to play with on every possession.”
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