Second Round of WNIT Sends Gophers to Cincinnati Sunday

CINCINNATI, Ohio -- After defeating Northern Iowa in the opening round of the Women's National Invitation Tournament, Minnesota (21-10, 9-9 B1G) will visit Cincinnati (22-10, 12-4 American Athletic Conference) in the WNIT second round Sunday at 2 p.m. CT at Fifth Third Arena.

The game, which is the first ever between the schools, will be streamed on GoBearcats.com and can also be heard on the Gophers' radio home, 96.7 FM KFAN Plus.

THE OPENING TIP-OFF

• Minnesota is making its fifth appearance all-time in the WNIT, also participating in the tournament in 2007, 2013, 2014 and 2016. The Golden Gophers are 5-4 all-time in the event, including a run to the Sweet 16 in 2014.

• The Gophers are 1-2 all-time in the WNIT's second round. The win came in 2014 over SMU, while the losses came to Western Kentucky (2007) and South Dakota (2016).

• The winner of Sunday's game between the Gophers and Bearcats will face the winner of Saturday's contest featuring Kent State and Butler. The date and site of that third round game is still to be determined.

• Holding a record of 21-10 overall and 9-9 in Big Ten play, Minnesota has recorded the 14th 20-win season in program history. Additionally, the Golden Gophers finished at .500 or better in the Big Ten for the fifth time in the last six seasons and 17th time in team history. Lindsay Whalen is the fifth head coach in program history to win at least 20 games in her first season.

• Few teams in the country do damage at the free throw line like Minnesota. Entering the postseason, the Gophers ranked 11th in the NCAA in both free throws attempted and free throws made. Kenisha Bell has been the most prolific free throw shooter for the team, ranking seventh in the nation in attempts and 11th in makes entering the postseason. In addition, Destiny Pitts was second in the Big Ten in free throw percentage and has made her last 27 attempts from the line.

• Over the last three games, the Gophers are 67-of-71 (94.4 percent) at the free throw line. On March 3 against Michigan State, Minnesota was 31-of-32 (.969) at the line. The 96.9 shooting percentage was the third best in program history (min. 10 attempts), while the 31 made free throws matched a season high and tied for the ninth most in program history. Against Indiana on March 7 in the Big Ten Tournament, Minnesota set a school record by making all 17 of its attempts. It was the most makes without a miss at the line in program history and tied for the fifth best mark in Big Ten history.

SERIES HISTORY WITH CINCINNATI

• Sunday's matchup will be the first ever between Minnesota and Cincinnati.

• Though the Golden Gophers have never faced the Bearcats, Minnesota is 9-6 all-time against teams currently in the American Athletic Conference. Minnesota is 1-0 against both SMU and Tulane, 3-1 vs. Memphis, 2-1 against South Florida, 2-2 vs. Wichita State and 0-2 when playing UConn.

• In their most recent game against an AAC team, the Gophers beat Memphis, 70-60, on Dec. 12, 2015. Minnesota has won two in a row against the conference and five of the last seven.

• Minnesota and Cincinnati have had two common opponent this season in Ohio State and Xavier. Both teams lost to the Buckeyes with the Gophers falling 65-55 on Jan. 28 and the Bearcats losing 69-56 on Dec. 2. Meanwhile, both teams defeated the Musketeers. Minnesota prevailed at Xavier on Nov. 14, 78-53, while the Bearcats took their contest with the Musketeers on Dec. 16, 79-61.

• Minnesota juniors Kehinde and Taiye Bello were high school teammates with Cincinnati junior Antoinette Miller at Southfield-Lathrup High School.

RECAPPING THE WNIT WIN OVER NORTHERN IOWA

• With four players in double figures, Minnesota defeated Northern Iowa in the opening round of the WNIT Friday night, 91-75, at Williams Arena.

• Destiny Pitts led all scorers with 29 points, her eighth straight game with at least 20 points. She was 10-of-16 from the floor, 5-of-10 from 3-point range and made all four free throw attempts.

• Kenisha Bell also reached the 20-point plateau with 22 points and a career-high 12 assists for her fifth double-double of the season. She also had seven rebounds.

• Mercedes Staples made the first start of her career and responded with a career-high 14 points. She also set career highs in field goals made and attempted (5-8), 3-pointers made and attempted (4-6), assists (6) and steals (3).

• Taiye Bello added 17 points to go with five rebounds, a block and a steal.

• The Gophers stormed out of the gates and led 30-11 after the first quarter. Pitts scored 10 points and Staples had nine, while the Gophers shot 78.6 percent from the floor by making 11-of-14 shots. The 30 points marked their most in an opening quarter this year for Minnesota.

• The lead was 52-28 at halftime for Minnesota and 70-49 through three quarters, but the Panthers fought back in the fourth quarter.

• Northern Iowa used a 14-2 run to turn a 75-55 Minnesota lead into a 77-69 advantage with 4:44 to play. Bell broke an 8-0 run with an and-one play and the Gophers never trailed by less than double-digits the rest of the way.

B1G SECOND-HALF COMEBACK

• Minnesota went 2-7 in its first nine games of the Big Ten season, but finished the second half of the conference slate with a 7-2 mark to go 9-9 in league play.

• Only conference-champion Maryland and Michigan had a better second-half record than Minnesota as each went 8-1.

• Several players saw their production increase in the second half, but none more so than Destiny Pitts. Her scoring went from 11.7 to 21.6 and her field goal (+.101), 3-point (+.128) and free-throw percentages (+.413) all jumped over 100 points.

• In addition to Pitts, Jasmine Brunson's scoring went from 6.4 to 11.3 (+4.9), Irene Garrido Perez's climbed from 1.8 to 6.3 (+4.5) and Kenisha Bell's moved from 17.7 to 19.6 (+1.9).

• As a whole, the Gophers' offense picked up its scoring from 63.3 points per game to 69.6, while the defense went from allowing 67.4 points to 59.0.

GOPHERS' TRIO CLAIMS B1G SEASON AWARDS

• Kenisha Bell, Taiye Bello and Destiny Pitts have all taken home season honors from the Big Ten.

• Bell was a consensus All-Big Ten First Team selection and was placed on the All-Big Ten Defensive Team. It's the second straight season that Bell has been named an All-Big Ten First Team honoree by the league's coaches, who voted for her unanimously, and the media. She was also on the All-Big Ten Defensive Team for the second straight year, joining Amanda Zahui B. (2014, 2015) as the only two-time honorees in team history.

• Pitts was named an All-Big Ten First Team honoree by the league's media and a Second Team selection by the Big Ten coaches.

• Bello was a consensus All-Big Ten Honorable Mention by both the league's coaches and media, garnering the first conference accolades of her career.

• In addition, Jasmine Brunson was tabbed as the school's Sportsmanship Award representative.

GOPHERS GAINING EXPERIENCE IN NEW ROLES

• Even though two-thirds of Minnesota's roster consists of upperclassmen, the Gophers actually have the fewest combined career minutes of any roster in the Big Ten, according to research initially done by Nebraska's Communications office.

• Entering the postseason, the Gophers' roster had played a combined 12,266 minutes, while no other team in the league had fewer than 12,600 combined minutes and only one other team was below 13,000.

• Not only is the team playing under a new coaching staff, all five members of the starting lineup that has been used for most of the season have been playing in different positions than they did a year ago. Among returning starters, Kenisha Bell has gone from the 1 to the 2, while Destiny Pitts has mostly played the 3 this season after playing the 4 a year ago.

• Meanwhile, Jasmine Brunson (1), Taiye Bello (4) and Annalese Lamke (5) have all started a majority of the games this season after primarily coming off the bench a year ago. In addition, Irene Garrido Perez's 11 career starts have all come in the last 11 games. All four have seen double-digit jumps in their minutes per game this season. Brunson leads the team with an increase of 20.9 minutes per game from last year, while Lamke (+17.6), Garrido Perez (+17.0) and Bello (+14.3) and follow her.

PITTS ON FIRE DOWN THE STRETCH

• Through the first seven games of B1G play, Destiny Pitts was averaging 9.6 points per contest while shooting 33.8 percent on field goals and 20.0 percent on 3-pointers, making 9-of-45 attempts from long range.

• Since then, she is averaging a team-high 22.0 points per game over the last 13 contests while shooting 46.6 percent from the floor and 41.5 percent on 3-pointers (44-for-106).

• She has scored at least 21 points in each of the last eight games. Prior to the run, she had never scored 20+ points in back-to-back games.

• She is the first Gopher to score 20+ in eight consecutive games since Rachel Banham ended the 2015-16 season with 20 straight games with at least 20 points.

• Entering the postseason, Pitts ranked second in the Big Ten in free throw percentage, third in 3-pointers attempted and 3-pointers made per game, fourth in 3-pointers made and fifth in scoring.

BELLO DOMINATING THE GLASS

• Entering the postseason, Taiye Bello was third in the country and leading the Big Ten in offensive rebounds per game, ranked seventh nationally in rebounds per game and was ninth in total rebounds. She was also 19th in the NCAA in defensive rebounds/game.

• Bello entered the WNIT as the most improved rebounder in the Big Ten, upping her rebounds per game total from 6.3 last year to 12.2 this year, which ranked second in the conference. The +5.9 difference had her tops in the B1G, ahead of teammate Annalese Lamke who had gone from 0.7 to 5.1 per game (+4.4). No other player in the B1G had improved their average by more than +3.3.

• Bello has 19 games this year with at least 10 rebounds, 11 games with at least 15 boards, seven games with at least 18 rebounds and one game with at least 20.

• Bello has 15 double-doubles in her career, including 11 this year, and Minnesota is 13-2 overall in those games.

• She has 151 offensive rebounds this season, breaking the Minnesota single-season record of 143 set by Angie Iverson in 1996-97 (note: records date back to 1987-88).

• Against Penn State on Feb. 17, Bello recorded her 10th double-double of the season with 14 points and 13 rebounds. She was 7-of-7 from the floor, marking just the eighth performance in team history, and her second this year, with that many attempts without a miss.

• Janel McCarville and Amanda Zahui B. are the only other players in team history to have multiple games in a career where they've attempted at least seven shots and not missed.

• Against No. 17 Rutgers on Feb. 3, Bello posted a double-double with 11 points and a career-high 21 rebounds. It tied for the sixth highest total in Gopher history, and they were the most by a Gopher since Amanda Zahui B. had 22 rebounds against DePaul in the 2015 NCAA Tournament. Ten of the rebounds were on the offensive end, while the other 11 came on defense.

• Bello's 21 rebounds are also tied for the most by any Big Ten player this year with Maryland's Shakira Austin.

• She had her first B1G double-double of the year with 12 points and 12 rebounds against Iowa and had 18 boards in back-to-back games versus Purdue and Ohio State.

• At Michigan on Dec. 31, she made all nine attempts from the floor for a career-high 24 points. She became one of five players in Gophers history to not miss when attempting at least that many shots.

• Arguably Bello's best performance of the season came against No. 12 Syracuse when she went for 20 points and grabbed 18 rebounds, including 10 offensive.

• Bello posted double-doubles in the first three games this season, becoming the first Minnesota player to have three straight double-doubles since Amanda Zahui B. ended the 2014-15 season with four in a row. And though she didn't have a double-double against Arkansas-Pine Bluff in game four, she did have 19 rebounds.

BELL FINISHING STRONG IN SENIOR SEASON

• Senior Kenisha Bell leads the Gophers in several categories, including points per game (18.9), assists per game (4.4) and steals per game (2.0).

• Nationally, Bell entered the postseason ranked seventh in the country in free throw attempts and 11th in free throws made.

• She was leading the Big Ten in free throws made and free throw attempts, ranked second in field goals attempted and points scored), and sat third in the league in scoring average, steals, steals per game and field goals made.

• After being named to preseason watch lists for the Nancy Lieberman Award (nation's top PG) and Naismith Trophy (nation's top player), Bell earned spots on midseason watch lists for the Wooden Award and is oen of 10 semifinalists for the Naismith Women's Defensive Player of the Year Award.

• Bell has also been a four-time Big Ten Player of the Week Honor Roll honoree.

• At Indiana on Feb. 6, Bell went over 2,000 career points. She scored 434 in her freshman season at Marquette and has scored 1,707 at Minnesota for a total of 2,141 career points.

BRUNSON MAKING MARK IN RETURN TO STARTING LINEUP

• After starting the first 18 games of the season, Jasmine Brunson came off the bench for the next two contests. She then returned to the starting lineup against Northwestern on Jan. 31, and stayed there until an injury forced her to miss the WNIT opener with Northern Iowa.

• Through the first 20 games, Brunson was averaging 7.2 points and shooting 36.2 percent from the floor. In 10 games since rejoining the starting lineup, she was averaging 10.8 points while shooting 38.8 percent.

• On the year, Brunson is averaging 8.4 points per game after averaging 2.9 last season. That +5.5 increase was the second best in the Big Ten entering the postseason behind only teammate Annalese Lamke (+6.9). No other player in the league was above an increase of 4.7.

GARRIDO PEREZ GETS CALLED INTO STARTING LINEUP

• Irene Garrido Perez has been called into the starting lineup for the last 13 contests, marking all 13 of her career starts.

• Since making the first start of her career against Purdue on Jan. 24, Garrido Perez has averaged 4.8 points, 2.0 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 0.9 steals per game while playing 35.0 minutes per game. Prior to that, her career totals in those categories were 1.6 points, 0.6 rebounds, 0.5 assists and 0.2 steals while averaging 8.5 minutes.

• She's shooting 41.5 percent on 3-pointers since joining the starting lineup, making 17 of 41 attempts.

• Against Penn State on Feb. 17, Garrido Perez set a career high with 16 points, including a career-best four made 3-pointers and six made field goals.

• In a win at Indiana on Feb. 6, she made all four shots, including all three 3-point attempts. Nine of her then-career high 11 points came in the first half. In addition, she set career highs for rebounds (6) and minutes (40).

LAMKE MAKING THE MOST OF HER SENIOR YEAR

• Excluding transfers and freshmen, no player in the Big Ten had seen her scoring average increase has much from last year to this entering the postseason as Annalese Lamke. Her +6.9 improvement from 1.1 points per game last year to 8.0 this year was 1.4 points better than Jasmine Brunson, who ranked second at +5.5.

• Lamke was also the second-most improved rebounder in the conference, jumping from 0.7 per game last year to 5.1 this year, for a difference of +4.4.

• Lamke is shooting 81.2 percent from the free throw line, which would rank fourth in the Big Ten if she qualified. In fact, she's made her last 16 attempts dating back to the Purdue game on Jan. 24.

• Lamke exploded for a career-high 21 points in the Gophers' season-opening win over New Hampshire. She scored 17 points alone in the second half and recorded an efficient 9-of-12 shooting.

• Against No. 12 Syracuse on Nov. 29, she had a career-high 13 rebounds and nine points. Lamke also had a 20-point outing against Wisconsin on Dec. 28 and scored 18 points (all in the first half) against Illinois on Jan. 6.

MINNESOTA NEAR THE TOP IN ATTENDANCE

• Through 19 home games, the Gophers have had a total attendance of 105,838 with an average of 5,570 per contest. Entering the postseason, the team was 10th in the country in total attendance and No. 12 in average.

• Within the Big Ten, only Purdue had a higher total attendance and only Purdue and Iowa had a higher average attendance.

• The average is the highest for the Gophers since 2008-09 when they averaged 5,833 and it's over 2,400 more than they averaged last year (3,130).

• Minnesota opened the 2018-19 season with a 70-47 win over New Hampshire on Nov. 9. The announced sellout crowd of 14,625 was a program record, surpassing the previous high of 14,363 set during Lindsay Whalen's senior season in 2004.

• Four of the top five attendance marks in team history, and eight of the top 10, have come with Whalen as either a player or coach.

• The season-opening sellout stood as the highest attendance for any women's game this season until it was passed on Jan. 31 by the 17,023 that saw No. 2 UConn play at No. 3 Louisville. It is now No. 4.

WHALEN AMONG THE BEST AT THE U IN FIRST YEAR

• With a 21-10 record this season, Lindsay Whalen has enjoyed one of the best debut coaching seasons in program history.

• She ranks fifth in program history for wins by a coach in their first year at Minnesota, trailing only Pam Borton (25), Ellen Mosher Hanson (24), Marlene Stollings (23) and Brenda Oldfield (22).

• Her win percentage of .677 is also fifth best behind Borton (.806), Oldfield (.733), Mosher Hanson (.706) and Stollings (.697).

• It should be noted, too, that Whalen was a player during the debut seasons of Oldfield (sophomore) and Borton (junior).

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Players Mentioned

Kenisha Bell

Taiye Bello

Jasmine Brunson

Irene Garrido Perez

Annalese Lamke

Destiny Pitts

Mercedes Staples