University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
Wisconsin
Gophers Win Third-Straight at Wisconsin
2/12/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
 |
|  | |||||||||||||
| 63 | 50 |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Feb. 12, 2014
The University of Minnesota women's basketball posted a 63-50 victory at Wisconsin (10-14, 3-9) Wednesday night at the Kohl Center to win its third-straight contest and move to 16-9 on the season and 5-6 in Big Ten Conference action.
Rachel Banham paced the Golden Gophers, who only trailed once in the opening minutes of the game, with 19 points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals, while Amanda Zahui B.contributed 17 points, nine rebounds and four blocks in the winning effort.
Sari Noga added nine points and seven rebounds, and Kayla Hirt and Micaëlla Richéeach tallied eight points.
Minnesota notched a .490 (25-51) field goal percentage for the game, which included a .519 (14-27) mark in the second half. The Gophers also out-rebounded the Badgers, 38-29, and out-scored them in the paint, 34-20. Defensively, the Maroon and Gold held Wisconsin to a .333 (20-60) field goal percentage and .286 (6-21) from three-point range.
The Gophers were in control the entire first half, from scoring the first points of the game to leading by as many as 12 points, 17-5, with 6:42 to play in the stanza. Minnesota shot .458 (11-24) from the field and held the Badgers to a .214 (6-28) field goal percentage, which included a .167 (2-12) mark from three-point range in the first 20 minutes of play.
Banham, Zahui and Riche each finished the first half with six points, while Noga added five points, four rebounds and two assists to send Minnesota into halftime with a 25-16 lead.
Minnesota maintained a sizeable lead for a majority of the second half, as they would go ahead by 13 at 11:40, but the Badgers would pull within four points of the Gophers, 43-39, with 8:25 to play. Minnesota would use a 10-2 run to extend its lead back to 12 at the five-minute mark and cruised to the 63-50 victory.
The Gophers are back in action Saturday when they travel to Northwestern for a Big Ten rematch on BTN at Welsh-Ryan Arena. Tip-off is set for 2:30 p.m.
-UM-
