University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
Iowa
Gophers Drop Overtime Heartbreaker to Hawkeyes
1/4/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Iowa's Krista VandeVenter hit a one-handed bank shot with 13.8 seconds left and Minnesota missed a chance to tie at the buzzer as the Gophers suffered a heartbreaking 68-66 overtime loss on Thursday at Williams Arena.
Minnesota tied a school record with just two points in extra period and nearly stopped the Hawkeyes on their final possession before VandeVenter threw up the winning shot from 14 feet away with two seconds left on the shot clock. The Gophers rushed upcourt and called a timeout with four seconds left. They inbounded under their own basket and Brittany McCoy took the ball at the top of the key. She rushed down the right side of the lane and missed a scooping layup as time expired.
VandeVenter, a senior from nearby Osseo, Minn., scored only two baskets in the second half, but they were the Hawkeyes' two biggest. Her other came with 26.8 seconds left in regulation - also with the shot clock dwindling - to tie the game at 64-64.
It was the first overtime game for each team since the most recent meeting, which the Gophers claimed 80-78 on Jan. 25, 2007 in Iowa City. The loss was also the Gophers' first in Big Ten play as they fell to 2-1 in the league and had their three-game winning streak snapped to fall to 11-4 overall. Iowa is also 2-1 in the Big Ten and now 9-5 overall. Every Big Ten team has at least one defeat.
The second half was intense throughout with the largest lead being a short-lived six-point advantage by the Hawkeyes with 16:30 left. Minnesota trailed by two or less points on six different occasions in the first 16 minutes of the half, but Iowa answered with a basket each time. The Gophers finally took their first lead of the stanza when Katie Ohm drained a three-pointer with 3:52 left to cap a 7-0 run and give Minnesota a 59-57 lead.
The teams traded baskets with Minnesota still holding its two-point cushion until Iowa's Wendy Ausdemore curled off a screen and drained her fourth three-pointer in as many attempts, giving the Hawkeyes a 62-61 lead with 2:57 lead. Minnesota's Emily Fox answered with a three-pointer with 1:50 remaining to put the Gophers back ahead 64-62. Each team missed shots on their next possession before VandeVenter's game-tying field goal with 26.8 seconds left. Fox missed a 12-footer in the lane with 12 seconds left and the game went to overtime when Iowa's Kristi Smith missed a runner down the right side of the lane, similar to McCoy's miss at the overtime horn.
Neither team scored in the first four minutes of the overtime as Minnesota had more turnovers in the extra period than the entire second half. The Gophers had two turnovers in the second half, but gave the ball away three times in overtime. Iowa also had three overtime turnovers and finally took the lead on two free throws by Smith with 58.3 seconds left. Minnesota tied the game on its ensuing possession as Leslie Knight rebounded a missed three-pointer by Ohm and scored the putback with 42.5 seconds remaining. Second chance points were a key for the Gophers all night as they held a 15-0 advantage over the Hawkeyes.
VandeVenter scored the game-winner on Iowa's next possession as the Gophers' two overtime points matched the school's all-time low set on Nov. 21, 1998 against Kansas.
Iowa hit eight of its first 12 shots in each half, helping it build leads of 19-13 in the opening frame and 57-52 in the second half. The Hawkeyes pushed their first-half lead to nine points at 24-15 with 8:43 left in the first half before Minnesota began to battle back. One of the biggest momentum plays of the first half was a hustling steal by Fox, who tipped the ball ahead to McCoy and then raced down the floor to take the return pass for a layup and eventual three-point play. The play cut the lead to 28-27 and the Gophers took the lead at 31-30 on a putback by Zoe Harper off a missed free throw with 2:57 left. Iowa's Johanna Solverson hit a three-pointer later in the period that gave the Hawkeyes a 36-33 halftime lead.
Knight had a big second half for the Gophers by scoring 14 of her game-high 18 points after halftime. Fox had 15 points and Ashley Ellis-Milan contributed 13 points. All five Iowa starters finished in double figures with Ausdemore and Solverson each tallying 16 points. Smith had 13 points and seven assists.
Iowa shot 50.9 percent for the game, including seven-for-18 (38.9 percent) from three-point range. Minnesota, which forced the Hawkeyes into 14 second-half turnovers, shot 41.5 percent for the contest.
