University of Minnesota Athletics
The Stretch Run - Gophers Host Ohio State Thursday
2/18/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Game 26
Minnesota Golden Gophers (18-7, 10-4)
vs.
Ohio State Buckeyes (20-5, 11-3)
LOCATION Williams Arena / Minneapolis, Minn.
DATE / TIME: Thursday, Feb. 19 / 8 p.m.
TELEVISION: Big Ten Network
Marney Gellner (Play-by-play), Leslie Hill (Color Analyst)
RADIO / WEBCAST: KBEM 88.5 FM / Gopher Radio Network / gophersports.com
Corbu Stathes (Play-by-play), Lynnette Sjoquist (Color Analyst)
Golden Gopher Watch List Feb. 19, 2009
Golden Gophers Host Big Ten Co-leader Ohio State - Minnesota plays host to Ohio State on Thursday, Feb. 19, as the Big Ten schedule kicks off the final two weeks of the Conference season. The Golden Gophers enter the week with an 18-7 overall record, 10-4 in Big Ten play.
Note Time Changes For Upcoming Games - Minnesota’s Feb. 26 game at Michigan State will be a 7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. CT) tip, while the home game on March 1 versus Illinois will begin at 1 p.m. Both games will be streamed live on bigtennetwork.com.
Big Ten Race Heats Up - The Gophers are among four teams at the top of the Big Ten standings separated by one game in the loss column. Ohio State and Michigan State lead the pack at 11-3. Minnesota stands at 10-4.
Triple Digits Times Two - The starting Gopher backcourt of Emily Fox and Brittany McCoy are surpassed the 100-assists plateau this season. The duo has accomplished this the last three seasons.
Gophers Host Ohio State on Thursday
Minnesota plays host to Ohio State on Thursday, Feb. 19, as the Big Ten schedule kicks off the final two weeks of the Conference season. The Golden Gophers enter the week with an 18-7 overall record, 10-4 in Big Ten play. No. 20/17 Ohio State sports a record of 20-5 overall and 11-3 in league action.
Minnesota BTN Doubleheader on Thursday
The Gophers’ game versus Ohio State will be televised live by the Big Ten Network at 8 p.m. following the Gopher men’s game at Michigan televise by BTN at 6 p.m. Marney Gellner and Leslie Hill will call the action. Hill is a Gopher alum (2000-04) and a member of Minnesota’s 2004 Final Four team.
Time Changes For Games In Last Week
The Big Ten announced the starting times and media coverage for the games in the final week of the Conference season. Minnesota’s Feb. 26 game at Michigan State will be a 7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. CT) tip, while the home game on March 1 versus Illinois will begin at 1 p.m. Both games will be streamed live on bigtennetwork.com.
Log Jam at the Top
The Golden Gophers are part of a four-team log jam at the top of the Big Ten standings. Ohio State and Michigan State share the lead at 11-3.. Purdue at 11-4 and Minnesota at 10-4 are right on the Buckeyes’ and Spartans’ heels. Iowa is only one game behind the Gophers with a 9-5 mark. Following is the remaining games for the top five teams in the Big Ten.
Michigan State (11-3)
Feb. 19 vs. Michigan
Feb. 22 at Wisconsin
Feb. 26 vs. Minnesota
March 1 vs. Purdue
Ohio State (11-3)
Feb. 19 at Minnesota
Feb. 22 at Indiana
Feb. 26 vs. Wisconsin
March 1 vs. Penn State
Purdue (11-4)
Feb. 19 at Penn State
Feb. 26 vs. Michigan
March 1 at Michigan State
Minnesota (10-4)
Feb. 19 vs. Ohio State
Feb. 23 at Northwestern
Feb. 26 at Michigan State
March 1 vs. Illinois
Iowa (9-5)
Feb. 19 vs. Wisconsin
Feb. 22 at Michigan
Feb. 26 vs. Illinois
March 1 at Northwestern
Gophers Are Winning The Close Ones
Good teams find a way to make plays in the closing minutes to win games. Minnesota has made the big plays in the last four minutes and its 10-4 Big Ten record certainly reflects it. The Gophers are 7-0 in Big Ten games decided by six or less points.
McCoy’s Buzzer-Beater Steals Win at Michigan
The old saying says one can create your own luck. If that’s the case, Brittany McCoy created some good luck just in time as she banked home a three-point buzzer-beater to steal a victory at Michigan on Sunday. McCoy drove the full length of the court and pulled up for the game winner a few feet to the left from the top of the key. The last time Minnesota won on a last-season shot was on Jan. 14, 2007, when Emily Fox nailed a jumper as time expired to give the Gophers a 65-63 win at Northwestern.
No. 2 on ESPN’s Top 10 Plays of the Day
Brittany McCoy’s game winner at Michigan was ESPN’s Sports Center’s No. 2 pick in Sunday’s Plays of the Day.
Gophers Successful in the Classroom as Well
The Golden Gopher women’s basketball team had 10 players (Kristen Dockery, Emily Fox, Zoe Harper, Brianna Mastey, Nicole Mastey, Brittany McCoy, Katie Ohm, Tanisha Smith, Kay Sylva, Jackie Voigt) honored Monday night at the Minnesota Scholar-Athlete Banquet.
Minnesota added the 2008 Fall semester to the list of terms where the Gophers compiled a team grade point average of over 3.0. Last fall, the Gophers earned a collective GPA of 3.109. Even more impressive is the cumulative GPA of this team - 3.216. The Gophers have earned a 3.0 in every semesters of Pam Borton coaching tenure.
Fox was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Second Team. Fox is a journalism major on pace to graduate this May.
A Tale of Two Halves
Coaches talk about team basketball all the time. Starters have to perform and bench players have to be always ready to. Well, Pam Borton got an interesting mix of the two in the Gophers’ game at Michigan. The starting lineup struggled mightily in the first half and thanks to Kay Sylva, Zoe Harper and Kiara Buford off the bench, the Gophers still managed to take a 26-24 lead in intermission. Those bench players contributed 24 of those 26 points. Easy math tells you that the starters scored just two points (Ashley Ellis-Milan). In the second half, the starters returned the favor scoring all 24 of the Gophers’ points to win 60-59.
Fulfilling Her Role With Gusto
Senior Kay Sylva is a sparkplug off the bench for the Gophers. Her role is to provide some tough defense and plenty of heart and hustle when she enters the game. Of late, she has been giving the Gophers a shot in the arm offensively as well. In the last three games, Sylva has averaged 8.0 points a game, nearly double her season scoring average (4.4). She has shot the ball extremely well, hitting 10 of 14 field goals (71.4 percent) and 4-of-4 three-point field goals.
Protecting Your Home Court
To maintain a position among the upper echelon of the Big Ten standings, defending one’s home court is of utmost importance. Minnesota (6-1) was the last to fall from the undefeated ranks on their home court this season in Big Ten play, winning their first six before falling to Purdue (2/12). The top five teams in the Big Ten standings (Michigan State, Ohio State, Purdue, Minnesota and Iowa) are a combined 29-6 (82.9 percent) in home Big Ten games in 2008-09.
Fox Now Among Top 10 Minnesota Scorers All-Time
Emily Fox joined the top 10 of the Gophers’ all-time leading scorers list in the game on Sunday at Michigan, her 117th career game in a Gopher uniform. She now has 1,343 career points and leaped past Ellen Kramer (1987-91 - 1,336 career points) into the No. 10 spot. She will jump up a few spots quickly as her next targets on the list are Marty Dahlen (1978-82) with 1,345 points at No. 9 and Deb Hunter (1979-83) with 1,363 points at No. 8.
Fox also recently became the eighth player in Minnesota history to score 100 three-point field goals, hitting the trey to get her triple digits in the Iowa (2-8) game. She currently has 103 career three-pointers.
McCoy Notches Third Season With 100+ Assists
Brittany McCoy added the 2008-09 as her third consecutive season with 100 or more assists and currently has 104 on the season. McCoy’s average of 4.2 dishes a game, which ranks third in the Big Ten. The Gopher junior was already the only player in school history to dish out 100 or more assists as both a freshman and sophomore and now she adds her junior season to the list.
Fox Also Hits Century Assists Mark
Emily Fox has 100 assists on the season as she joined Brittany McCoy with 100 or more assists this season. The duo both collected their 100th assist of the 2008-09 season in the win at Michigan (2/15). Fox and McCoy share the honor of being one of just two sets of Minnesota teammates (Janel McCarville/April Calhoun, 2004-05) to tally triple assist totals in the same season. The Fox and McCoy tandem now accomplished the last three seasons.
Let the Countdown Begin
Gopher junior Ashley Ellis-Milan has played the best basketball of her collegiate career this season. Not only is she a solid candidate for All-Big Ten honors, Ellis-Milan is also nearing the 1,000 career points milestone. She is averaging 10.2 points per game over her career and currently has scored 920 points as a Golden Gophers. Ellis-Milan also has 657 career rebounds.
Defense, Defense and More Defense
The Big Ten is known as a physical league. The statistics are revealing just how important team defense is this season. Amazingly over half the teams - six (Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern and Wisconsin) - are averaging less than 60 points a game this season in Conference play. Purdue managed to escape this list, checking in at 60.1 points a game. Case in point -- all four teams that lost on Sunday scored less than 60 points.
Scouting Ohio State
Nationally ranked Ohio State shares Big Ten lead (Michigan State) with an 11-3 record, 20-5 overall. The Buckeyes, however, come to Williams Arena having lost their last two road games (Michigan State and Iowa). Leading the way for the Buckeyes is the 2008 Big Ten Player of the Year, sophomore center Jantel Lavender. Lavender tops the conference in scoring at 21.2 points and rebounds at 10.8 boards a game. The Buckeyes added one of best freshmen in the nation to their already talent-laden roster in Samantha Prahaulis. Prahaulis’ average od 5.1 assists per Conference game is the best in the Big Ten.
The Minnesota / Ohio State Series
Ohio State owns a dominating 46-10 advantage in the series with Minnesota. The Gophers broke through and won their very first game in Columbus earlier this season and now have the chance to sweep the season series against the Buckeyes for the first time. The series was split last year, each team winning on their home court.
