University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
Wisconsin
Minnesota Falters in Second Half, Falls to Wisconsin
1/21/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Minnesota saw another double-figure second-half lead evaporate, as its 14-point halftime advantage was not enough to hold up, and Wisconsin rallied for a 71-63 victory on Thursday at Williams Arena.
Sophomore guard Leah Cotton led Minnesota with 24 points, but she was the lone Gophers player to reach double-digits, and the Badgers received 21 points apiece from Alyssa Karel and Lin Zastrow to escape with the win and sweep the season series.
Junior forward Jackie Voigt opened the scoring with a three-pointer just over one minute in, and junior guard Brianna Mastey made it 6-2 with a trey from the right side with 17:14 on the clock. Lin Zastrow and Tara Steinbauer each scored for the Badgers to tie the score at 6-6.
Like it did in the first half in Madison, Minnesota struggled to shoot the ball in the first half, as the Gophers made just two of their first 11 attempts.
Freshman guard Sari Noga gave the Gophers a 12-10 lead with a pair of free throws after the timeout, and freshman forward Kionna Kellogg made it 15-10 in favor of the home team by making a trey from the left wing as the shot clock expired.
Cotton then joined the scoring, making a turnaround jumper in the lane at the 10:33 mark to push the advantage to 17-11. Sophomore forward Katie Loberg scored to make it 19-13, and Cotton added a pair of free throws to give Minnesota a 21-15 edge.
Cotton scored again, giving Minnesota four-straight made field goals, and she added two more free throws to give Minnesota (8-11, 0-6 Big Ten) a nine-point lead, 25-16.
Steinbauer scored to cut it to 25-18 with 7:25 left in the half, but Minnesota then went on a 9-0 run, with Cotton tallying five points during the stretch, to stake the Gophers to a 34-18 lead at the 5:06 mark.
Wisconsin (10-9, 5-2 Big Ten) went on a 12-4 run of its own to get back within eight points, 38-30, with 1:39 left before the break, but the Gophers closed the half by scoring the final six points to take a 44-30 lead into the locker room.
The Badgers opened the second half by going on an 11-4 run over the first 5:59 to cut Minnesota's 14-point halftime lead in two and pull within 48-41. A free throw by Cotton and a short jumper by Noga made it 51-41, but Karel hit a trey from right in front of the UW bench to pull the Badgers back within seven, 51-44.
Minnesota's lead kept shrinking, as the Badgers pulled to within one point, 57-56, on a basket by Steinbauer with just under six minutes left. Then, with 4:37 remaining, Lin Zastrow gave the Badgers a 59-57 lead on a three-point play.
The Gophers' downfall was their shooting, as they made just 5-of-24 attempts during the Badgers' second-half rally to take the lead.
As Minnesota continued to struggle to score down the stretch, the Badgers built their lead, as Karel and Zastrow did most of the damage.
The Gophers travel to East Lansing, Mich., this weekend for a Sunday afternoon game at Big Ten-leading Michigan State. Tipoff time at the Breslin Center is set for 1:00 p.m. (CST).
