Riding an eight-game win streak and ranked in the top 25 for the first time this season, the Gophers women’s basketball team couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn in the first half against 10th-ranked Ohio State.
The 23rd-ranked Gophers missed a panoply of shots from inside the paint. Layups, hook shots, putbacks, whatever option it chose, Minnesota missed 14 shots from the paint. It wasn’t just from the paint, either. Minnesota was 2 of 10 from 3-point range and shot 28% (11 for 40) in the first half.
But they did the other stuff so well — rebounded, played defense, took care of the ball — that they were still in the game, down 29-26 at intermission. And once they started hitting their shots, everything changed.
Sophie Hart stabilized the game for Minnesota with 18 hard-earned points from the post, and Mara Braun added 18 from the perimeter as the Gophers ran away in the second half to beat Ohio State 74-61 at Williams Arena.
It was the Gophers’ second victory over a Top 10 team this season after beating then-No. 10 Iowa in Iowa City. Amaya Battle added 13 points with a game-high 12 rebounds and five assists for Minnesota (21-6 overall, 12-4 Big Ten), which plays host to 18th-ranked Michigan State on Sunday.
Grace Grocholski scored 12 points, five assists and two steals for Minnesota, which hit 10 of 15 shots in the third quarter and rode an 18-4 run to take nominal control in the third, an 11-point lead that had the Buckeyes chasing the rest of the game.
Jaloni Cambridge and Chance Gray did what they could to keep the Buckeyes (22-5, 11-4) in it, scoring all but two of Ohio State’s 19 points in the fourth, but the Gophers used a pair of big offensive rebounds to kill some clock and generally handled OSU’s desperate pressure late.
Cambridge scored a game-high 23 points, and Gray added 17.
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