WBB: Golden Gophers Travel to Play Santa Clara on Saturday

Ten

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16/16 MINNESOTA GOPHERS (7-1, 0-0 Big Ten)
vs.
Santa Clara (3-3 0-0 West Coast)

LOCATION Santa Clara, Calif. - Leavey Center (4,500)
DATE / TIME: Saturday, Dec. 11 / 2 p.m. PST (4 p.m. CST)
TELEVISION: None
RADIO / WEBCAST: WFMP 107.1 FM / gophersports.com Tom Witschen (play-by-play), Lynnette Sjoquist (analyst)

Golden Gopher Watch List - Dec. 11, 2004
Go West Gophers - Minnesota travels to the West Coast and a Saturday game at Santa Clara for the Golden Gophers' final road non-conference contest of the season. Minnesota has three remaining non-conference contests on the schedule, all of them in Williams Arena.

Gophers Being Stingy on Defense of Late - Like defense? Head coach Pam Borton loves it and her Golden Gophers have been developing into a dominating defensive squad as the season progresses. Opponents are averaging 55.4 points per game on the season but just 43.3 points in the last three games. Minnesota's "D" first held Detroit (12/2) to a school NCAA-era record 34 points, then followed that by limiting Kansas (12/5) to 45 points. In the Gophers' last outing, they held a powerful Wisconsin-Green Bay team to 51 points, 20 points below their season average.

McCarville Closing in on Career Double - All-American Janel McCarville is aiming toward becoming the first Golden Gopher in 17 seasons and fourth overall to collect 1,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds. McCarville is far beyond the 1,000 career points plateau and needs 60 rebounds to accomplish the honored double-double.

Top-Ranked LSU Coming to Williams on Dec. 14 - What an early present for Gopher basketball fans. LSU and Minnesota, two Final Four teams from a year ago, will face off on Tuesday, Dec. 14 in Williams Arena.

GOPHERS TRAVEL TO SANTA CLARA
No. 16/16 Minnesota travels to the West Coast to play its second road game of the week. The Golden Gophers, 7-1 and winners of their last six games, face Santa Clara on Saturday at 2 p.m. (4 p.m. Central).The Broncos are 3-3 and haven't played since Sunday.

IT'S EARLY BUT IT'S STILL A RECORD PACE
The Golden Gophers' defense is on a record pace. Yes, it is plenty early in the season but the challenge to lower the school record for defensive average (average points allowed) has been accepted by this year's squad. The standard to shoot for in 59.7 points per game set a year ago. After seven games this season, the Gophers are allowing an average of 55.4 points per game, including a stingy 43.3 points per game over the last three ballgames. Seven games into the 2003-04 season, the Gophers were giving up 58.4 points a contest.

DOUBLES BETTER TRIPLES IN THIS CASE
Senior Janel McCarville saw opposing white jerseys everywhere in Wednesday's game at Wisconsin-Green Bay. Despite the nearly constant attention of a triple team, McCarville picked up her second double-double of the season with 16 points and 12 rebounds in the Gophers' 60-51 win. The double-double was the 35th of McCarville career.

NOT THE MOST WELCOME OF GUESTS
Minnesota has captured road victories in two every tough arenas already this season. Creighton owned a 41-3 record at home before the Gophers came in and handed the Bluejays their fourth home loss in that span. The Gophers' snapped Wisconsin-Green Bay's 13-game home winning streak and had ranked as the ninth-longest in the nation. After the loss to Minnesota the Phoenix are now 50-6 at home since 2000.

GOPHERS RANKED NO. 16
The Golden Gophers moved up two spots to No. 16 in both this week's Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today Coaches Polls. LSU, who visits Williams Arena on Dec. 14, holds down the No. 1 spot in both polls.

MINNESOTA HITS WEEK 50 IN AP POLL
Minnesota has been ranked in the AP National Poll's top 25 for the last 50 polls, dating back to Jan. 21, 2002, and is building upon the longest streak in Golden Gopher history. The Gophers spent a record stretch of eight weeks in the AP's top 10 from Dec. 1 - Jan. 12, nine weeks in the ESPN/USA Today poll (Nov. 24-Jan. 19) during the 2003-04 season.

ASSISTING IN TEAM CHEMISTRY
As the Golden Gophers continue to fine-tune their team chemistry on the court, watch for the assist count as an indication of their success. Minnesota has 145 assists this season on 198 field goals converted. That's an impressive conversion rate of over 73 percent. The top two performances with studying this assist ratio was versus Arkansas State, when the Gophers dished out 25 assists and 28 baskets, and against Kansas, when 20 assists were credited on 24 made shots. Five Golden Gopher starters average at least two assists per game, led by Janel McCarville at 4.8 assists per game.

BOLDEN SHUTS DOWN ANOTHER STAR
Shannon Bolden, the Golden Gophers' defensive stopper, chalked up another victim to her smothering defensive play holding the Horizon League's Preseason Player of the Year, Abby Scharlow of Wisconsin-Green Bay, to a 5-13 shooting performance in Minnesota's 60-51 victory. Scharlow didn't take her first shot until nine minutes into the game and scored just two points on the Gopher stopper in the first half. Scharlow added three points scored on Bolden to finish with just five points while the Gophers' 5-11 defensive wizard was on watch. Scharlow finished with 11 in the game. Bolden added five points and five rebounds to the Gophers' winning effort.

SCHONROCK IS THE FLOOR GENERAL
Point guard Shannon Schonrock is the extension of head coach Pam Borton on the court. Now in her second full season starting at point for the Gophers, Schonrock continues to show her leadership qualities in all aspects of the game. The spunky 5-6 guard is third on the team in scoring, averaging 11.1 points a game, but the biggest contribution on the hardwood is her ability to direct the team. She sees an average of 35.4 minutes per game, a team-high by nearly five minutes (Shannon Bolden averaged 30.5 minutes per game). Over the last five games, Schonrock has turned over the ball only once for every 25.1 minutes of time on the court. She also leads the team with 19 three-point field goals, hitting on an impressive 42.2 percent from long range. From the free throw line, Schonrock is among the team leaders at 81.8 percent accuracy.

McCARVILLE FINALLY MAKES THE BIG TEN LIST
The Big Ten Conference requires a player to play in 75 percent of her team's games to be included on its statistical leaderboard. Senior center Janel McCarville finally qualified for this season's listing after missing the Gophers' first two games of the season. McCarville is ranked in every stat except three-point field goals. She is first in rebounds (10.2 rpg.), second in blocks (2.3 bpg.), fourth in assists (4.8), tied for fourth in steals (2.50 spg.) and 17th in scoring 13.5 ppg.)

CALHOUN QUIETLY GOING ABOUT HER BUSINESS
Junior guard April Calhoun isn't the most flashy of the Golden Gophers, in fact her contributions often get lost in the big-time all-around numbers of Janel McCarville or the timely three-point shooting of Shannon Schonrock. Yet, Calhoun's presence on the court, as well as her contributions, are important factors in the Gophers' 7-1 start to the season. Calhoun quietly goes about her business on the court. She averages 30.1 minutes a game, third among the Gophers, and tallies consistent statistical numbers across the board. Calhoun only takes about four shots a game but averages 6.8 points an outing. She tops the Gophers from the free throw line, hitting on 18-of-21 attempts for 85.7 percent. She adds 4.6 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.9 steals per game.

McCARVILLE CONTINUES HER CLIMB UP CHARTS
Janel McCarville is continuing her climb up the charts on two Golden Gopher career lists. McCarville is seventh on the Gophers' all-time career scoring list with 1,404 career points. She is 38 points from surpassing Carol Peterka's (1982-86) sixth-place total of 1,441. McCarville has 147 career blocks, recently moving past Kim Bell (1998-02) and into second on the career blocks list.

SCHONROCK NOW FOURTH ON CAREER THREE-POINT LIST
Junior Shannon Schonrock hit a trio of three-pointers in the win over Wisconsin-Green Bay to increase her career total to 119 triples and move her past Cassie VanderHeyden (1998-00) and into fourth on the Gophers' all-time list for three-point field goals. Schonrock's next target on the list is Lindsay Whalen's (2000-04) n third with 120. Lindsay Lieser (1999-03) holds the record with 216 career three pointers. Schonrock has hit three or more three-point field goals in a game 16 times in her Gopher career.

McCARVILLE PLAYS IN 100TH GAME AS A GOLDEN GOPHER
Janel McCarville led the Golden Gophers to a 60-51 victory over Wisconsin-Green Bay in her 100th game of her collegiate career. Minnesota owns a 77-23 record in games the senior All-American has played in. Minnesota's senior class of 1981 (1977-81) owns the school record for the most wins by a class with 87. The senior class of 1983 gathered 84, while last year's seniors finished with 80 career wins. McCarville is 11 wins from holding the record in a class of her own.

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