University of Minnesota Athletics
Game Preview: Minnesota at Northwestern
1/31/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
| Minnesota (17-4, 6-3 B1G) at Northwestern (14-6, 4-5 B1G) | |
| Date / Time | Sunday, February 1 | 2 p.m. |
| Location | Evanston, Ill. (Welsh-Ryan Arena) |
| Live Video | BTN Plus |
| Radio | 1500 ESPN Play-by-Play: Corbu Stathes | Analyst: Lynnette Sjoquist |
| Live Stats | |
| Game Notes | Minnesota | Northwestern |
| Official Sites | Minnesota | Northwestern |
| Social Media | @GophersWBB | Facebook |
Jan. 31, 2015
MINNEAPOLIS - The University of Minnesota (17-4, 6-3) women's basketball team plays its first of two-straight road games at Northwestern Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. Live video of the contest will be available on BTN Plus for a fee, while live audio can be heard on 1500 ESPN beginning at 1:30 p.m.
The Gophers enter Sunday's game in a four-way tie with Rutgers, Nebraska and Ohio State for third place in Big Ten standings with a 6-3 record, while their 17-4 record and .810 overall winning percentage ranks third in the league behind just No. 5/5 Maryland and No. 20/17 Iowa.
Minnesota picked up win No. 17 Wednesday night at Williams Arena, defeating Penn State, 75-64, behind a triple double from Amanda Zahui B. The center tallied 16 points, 13 rebounds and matched the Big Ten single-game record with 12 blocks to help the Maroon and Gold tie its 34-year-old single-game record with 15 total team blocks.
Following the 12-block outing against the Lady Lions, Zahui B. will head into the contests against the Wildcats just 10 blocks away from breaking Minnesota's all-time record of 196 blocks set by Janel McCarville from 2001-05. She is also 118 points from becoming just the 22nd Gopher in program history to score 1,000 career points.
Shayne Mullaney also notched a double-digit effort against Penn State, as she dished out 12 assists in the win for her fifth 10+ assist outing in the team's last six games. She paces the Big Ten with 9.3 assists per game in league-only action, while ranking second in conference standings with 7.2 assists per game overall. She enters the game at Welsh-Ryan Arena needing one assist to move into Minnesota's single-season top-10.
The Wildcats welcome Minnesota to Evanston with a 14-6 overall record and a 4-5 Big Ten record to rank eighth in league standings. They are coming off a 102-99 heartbreaker aagainst Iowa Thursday night in which the two teams combined for a NCAA-record 32 three-point field goals. Northwestern made 13 of its 18 attempts from beyone the arch, led by Ashley Deary's five triples. Including the game against the Hawkeyes, the Wildcats have dropped four of their last five contests.
Minnesota is 31-34 all-time when facing Northwestern, which includes a 12-17 record on the road. The Gophers have won three of the teams' last four meetings and are coming off a series sweep of the Wildcats last season. The Maroon and Gold has also won two-straight at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
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