University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
Michigan State
Spartans Rally Past Minnesota on Senior Day
2/27/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Katie Loberg led Minnesota with 19 points, but #8/10 Michigan State rallied from a 12-point second half deficit to hand the Gophers a 65-51 defeat before a Senior Day crowd of 4,578 at Williams Arena.
Minnesota led 45-33 with 13:24 remaining, but Michigan State responded with a 26-2 run over the next nine-plus minutes, as the Spartans won their 25th game of the season. Michigan State (25-4 overall, 13-3 Big Ten), which celebrated its first outright Big Ten title after clinching it on Thursday evening, heads into the Big Ten Tournament as the #1 seed.
Minnesota (12-17 overall, 4-12 Big Ten) will be seeded ninth, and will face eighth-seeded Northwestern on Thursday at approximately 5:45 p.m. (CST), depending on the length of that afternoon's first two contests. The Gophers and Wildcats split their games this season, but Minnesota is 15-3 against Northwestern under ninth-year head coach Pam Borton.
Kiara Buford added 10 points for the Gophers, but she and Loberg were the lone Minnesota players to reach double figures. Loberg made 9-of-14 field goals, while also grabbing a team-high seven rebounds and establishing a career-best with three steals.
Michigan State wasted no time establishing an early lead, as Lykendra Johnson and Kalisha Keane each made three-pointers to put the Spartans up, 6-0, in the first two-and-a-half minutes.
Loberg made a 14-foot jumper in the lane, and Buford scored on an eight-foot bank shot to get Minnesota going, but the Spartans twice led by seven points early, and held a 17-11 on a trey by Keane with 10:14 left in the half.
But Minnesota went on a 12-3 run, keyed by the first four points of the run by junior guard Brianna Mastey, to take a 23-20 lead with 5:12 left in the opening half. Then, with the Gophers holding a 27-25 edge, Minnesota closed the half with a 6-1 spurt on a putback layup by junior forward Jackie Voigt, two free throws from Mastey, and a drive along the left side of the lane for a layup by Buford to take a 33-26 advantage to the break.
The second half started out well for the Gophers, as they stretched their seven-point halftime lead to ten points, 39-29, as Loberg scored six quick points. Minnesota had its biggest lead, 45-33, following a free throw by Loberg with 13:24 remaining.
But that's when Minnesota hit a wall offensively, and the nationally ranked Spartans began their 26-2 run to change Minnesota's 12-point lead into a 59-47 advantage for MSU on Keane's four three-pointer of the afternoon.
Keane finished with 19 points, eight rebounds, five steals, and four assists, while Johnson added 18 points and seven rebounds. Cetera Washington led the Spartans with nine boards, and Porsche Poole was an important spark for the Spartans, making 2-of-2 treys and finishing with 10 points off the bench.
Brianna Mastey added nine points and four rebounds for the Gophers, but Minnesota turned the ball over 22 times and made just 7-of-21 field goals in the second half. For the game, Minnesota made 20-of-49 (.408) attempts, but just 1-of-5 three-pointers, and 10-of-15 free throws. The teams were deadlocked, 33-33, in rebounding.
Minnesota's two senior players - China Antoine and Kristen Dockery -- as well as two managers and an athletic medicine intern, were recognized during a postgame ceremony. Antoine had five assists, three steals, three points, and a pair of rebounds in the game, while Dockery had two rebounds in 11 minutes.
The Gophers will travel to Indianapolis, Ind., on Wednesday for their first-round matchup with Northwestern at the 2011 Big Ten Tournament. The winner of the Minnesota-Northwestern game will advance to face top-seeded Michigan State on Friday at 5:00 p.m. (CST). Every Big Ten Tournament game until the championship game will be televised on the Big Ten Network. Sunday's title game will air on ESPN2.
(Minnesota-MSU Box Score sent as a PDF, .BPK and HTML attachment)
