University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota Plays Host to Pittsburgh for Super Six Series
11/17/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Minnesota and Pittsburgh will make history this evening, meeting for the first time, and playing the first-ever game in the newly-created Super Six Series.
The Super Six Series is an agreement between six conferences -- Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Southeastern and Pacific-10 -- with two teams from each conference participating, resulting in six games played in on-campus venues. Each conference will have one home game and one away game.
Minnesota and Michigan State are representing the Big Ten this year. The Gophers play host to Pittsburgh this evening in the opening matchup of the Super Six Series, while the Spartans travel to Baylor on Friday.
The Golden Gophers split a pair of games at their own Best Buy Classic last weekend, defeating Northern Illinois, 79-58 in their season-opener, and then losing to Green Bay in the championship game, 79-75.
Minnesota shot the ball extremely well, making 54-of-95 (.568) field goals, including 8-of-20 (.400) treys, for the weekend. Minnesota made 26-of-43 (.605) attempts in win against NIU. The last time Minnesota had a better field goal percentage in a game was Dec. 3, 2005, when the Gophers made 25-of-41 (.610) attempts in a 78-70 win versus Nebraska during current Gopher assistant coach Kelly Roysland's senior year.
Kiara Buford and Leah Cotton were named to the Best Buy Classic all-tournament team. Buford led all scorers in the win against NIU with 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field and four steals, and then matched her point total in the setback versus Green Bay. Cotton registered new career-highs with 18 points and six assists against NIU, and then bettered her career-best point total with 23 in the loss to the Phoenix. Cotton combined to make 15-of-18 (.833) field goals in the two games.
Jackie Voigt also had a career-best effort by pulling down 14 boards against NIU, and she averaged 11.0 rebounds at the tournament, and China Antoine distributed the ball for seven assists on Saturday and a career-high eight assists on Sunday.
Game time this evening is set for 7:00 p.m. (CST) in Williams Arena. The game will be streamed live on BigTenNetwork.com, or can be heard on KBEM (88.5 FM) and selected affiliates on the Gopher Radio Network, with Corbu Stathes calling the play-by-play and Lynnette Sjoquist adding color commentary.
For ticket information, call the Golden Gopher Ticket Office at 612.624.8080 or 1.800.U.GOPHER, or visit www.mygophersports.com and select the women's basketball page.
