University of Minnesota Athletics
Golden Gophers Host Vermont on Thursday
11/30/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Minnesota Golden Gophers (5-2)
vs.
Vermont Catamounts (4-1)
LOCATION Williams Arena - Minneapolis, Minn.
DATE / TIME: Thursday, Nov. 30 / 7 p.m.
TELEVISION: None
RADIO / WEBCAST: KBEM-FM-88.5, KRDS 95.5 /
Gopher Radio Network / gophersports.com
Rita Maloney (play-by-play), Lynnette Sjoquist (analyst)
Golden Gopher Watch List — Nov. 30, 2006
• Minnesota Returns Home to Play Two Games This Week - Minnesota (5-2) returns home after its first two road games of the season to face Vermont (4-1) on Thursday, Nov. 30. Tip off is set for 7 p.m. in Williams Arena. The Gophers will then host Chicago State on Saturday (6 p.m.).
• Borton Wins Number 100 - Minnesota head coach Pam Borton captured her 100th victory along the Minnesota sideline in the win over Kent State. Borton is just the second coach with 100 or more wins is school history.
• Roysland Moves Up Three-Point Field Goal Lists - Senior Kelly Roysland ranks 10th on the Gophers’ three-point field goals made list with 78 and will soon jump into the career list for three-point accuracy.
• High-Scoring Gopher Backcourt - Minnesota won its last game over Kent State behind the play of its backcourt. Kelly Roysland and Emily Fox tallied scored over 20 points in the win, the first time with January of 2003 that two guards contributed such high-scoring efforts in the same game.
Gophers Host Vermont on Thursday
Minnesota (5-2) returns home after its first two road games of the season to face Vermont (4-1) on Thursday, Nov. 30. Tip off is set for 7 p.m. in Williams Arena.
Borton Captures Gopher Win #100
Golden Gopher head coach Pam Borton, in her fifth season at Minnesota, recorded her 100th victory on the Gopher sideline in a 70-67 victory over Kent State in Minnesota’s last outing. Borton’s 100 victories is second on the list of Minnesota coaching wins trailing Ellen Mosher-Hanson’s total of 172 from 1977-87.
Borton, like Mosher-Hanson, accomplished the feat in their fifth season on the Minnesota sideline. Borton did so faster, winning number 100 in the seventh contest of the season. Mosher-Hanson hit number 100 on the 21st game of the 1981-82 season.
Borton Honored in Pre-Game Ceremony
Coach Borton will be honored for her 100th coaching victory at Minnesota in a brief pre-game ceremony before the meeting with Vermont.
Call it a Bit of Irony
The Golden Gophers will celebrate Pam Borton’s Minnesota accomplishment before a game with Vermont, the school at which Borton began her collegiate coaching career. Borton spend nine years with the Catamounts; first as an assistant coach (1988-93), then as head coach from 1993-87). Borton owned a 69-46 (.667) recording in her four seasons as the Vermont head coach.
Borton Versus Her Old Coaching Haunts
Pam Borton has taken her Minnesota squad to battle against her old coaching haunts only one time over the past five seasons. The Gophers defeated Boston College, where Borton spent five seasons (1997-2002), during their NCAA Tournament march to the Final Four in 2004.
Roysland Calms Nerve-Wracking Trend
Kelly Roysland calmly accomplished want you would expect a senior to do in crunch time. With the game on the line, the Gophers would like none other than their team captain to take the big shot. In the close win over Kent State, those shots were free throws and Roysland went 4-for-4 from the line in the last 26 seconds of the game. Calming a nerve-wracking trend...well, Minnesota was just 8-of-18 (.444) before Roysland’s key late makes.
Roysland 10th on All-Time Three-Pointer List
Kelly Roysland has joined the top-10 list of three-point field goals made. Roysland is 10th with 78 triples. Her next target on the list is Shannon Bolden and her No. 9 total of 79 three pointers. Two players, Stacy Carver (1989-93) and Sarah Schieber (1994-98), share seventh place with 80.
Two Attempts Away From Another Top 10 List
More impressive than Kelly Roysland’s 78 three-point field goals in her career is that she has collected those trifectas in just 198 attempts. That’s a 39.3 percent clip of accuracy. When Roysland gathers her 200th three-point attempt, she will become eligible for the Gophers’ top 10 list in three-point field goal percentage. Right now she would rank second in school history with a definite shot at bettering Shannon Schonrock’s (2002-06) record of hitting on 39.7 percent of her shots behind the arc.
Backcourt Heading Toward Prolific
The Gophers’ top two scorers this season are starting guards Kelly Roysland and Emily Fox. In the Gophers’ win over Kent State, Roysland matched a career high with 23 points, while Fox established a new career best with 21 points. While several combinations of position players scored 20 points in the same game, including several by the All-America duo of Lindsay Whalen and Janel McCarville, one has to go back to Jan. 12, 2003 to find the last time two Gopher guards scored 20 or more points in a single game. Whalen (23) and Corrin Von Wald (25) led the Gophers to a 94-65 victory over Iowa. A third Gopher, McCarville (21) added another 20-point scorer in that game.
Scouting Vermont
Vermont owns a 4-1 record on the season, losing its season-opener to Massachusetts, then winning four straight including a 56-48 triumph over nationally ranked Boston College in the title game of the Rhode Island Invitational last weekend. The Catamounts are led by freshman guard Courtnay Pilypaitis who has started all five games and averages 13.6 points per game. The 6-0 Pilypaitis likes to fire the long ball, where she has taken 30 three-point attempts, an average of six per game. Senior guard Brittney Cross addes 10.2 points per game. Cross topped the Catamounts with 17 points versus Boston College.
The Minnesota / Vermont Series
First meeting.
