Gophers Back at Williams Arena to Take on No. 10/9 Maryland

MINNEAPOLIS - Minnesota (8-7, 1-2 B1G) returns to Williams Arena for the first time since Dec. 15, when the Gophers host the Maryland Terrapins (11-4, 3-1 B1G) on Sunday afternoon. The Jan. 9, matchup is available to stream on B1G+ and can be found on KFAN+ with Justin Gaard and Lynnette Sjoquist on the call.

ABOUT THIS GAME

Minnesota's matchup with Maryland is the second year in a row the two teams have met in Minneapolis. Last time the Gophers and Terrapins faced off was just 11 months ago in 2021, a matchup that Maryland won 94-62 in College Park. Maryland returns all five starters from that matchup while 10 of the Gophers 11 student-athletes who played in that game return with Katie Borowicz the only one not available to the Maroon and Gold due to injury.
Minnesota and Maryland meet for the first time this season and 13th time overall Saturday. The Terrapins have won 11 of the 12 all-time meetings.
The Gophers lone win over Maryland came in Minneapolis back in 2018 when the Gophers upset the No. 10 ranked Terrapins 93-74.
Minnesota associate head coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis was an assistant coach at Mississippi State during the 2017-18 season when Chloe Bibby was a freshman. Bibby transferred to Maryland prior to last season and is now a graduate student.
Coming in 2-2 in their last four games with losses to No. 1 South Carolina and No. 8 Indiana, Maryland is ranked 10th in the Associated Press Poll and 9th in the WBCA Coaches Poll with a 11-4 record overall and 3-1 mark in league play. The Terrapins other two losses this season are against then-No. 5 NC State and then-No. 7 Stanford.
Angel Reese has returned from a foot injury from last season and leads the team with 18.1 points per game, while Ashley Owusu (16.3), Katie Benzan (12.5), Diamond Miller (11.2) and Chloe Bibby (10.7) are also averaging double figures.

GOPHER NOTABLES

Minnesota is fresh off its first Big Ten win of the 2021-22 season on the road against Rutgers (7-9, 0-4 B1G). The Gophers got a 19-point performance from Jasmine Powell and got 11 points from Kadi Sissoko in the fourth quarter to pull off the wire-to-wire road win. Without head coach Lindsay Whalen (appendectomy) Carly Thibault-DuDonis served as acting head coach, marking the first time two acting head coaches faced off in a Big Ten game with Rutgers Timothy Eatman serving in place of C. Vivian Stringer.
University of Minnesota women's basketball head coach Lindsay Whalen will not coach against No. 10/9 Maryland. Whalen is still recovering from her successful appendectomy surgery that was performed on Tuesday, January 4. Carly Thibault-DuDonis will serve as Minnesota's acting head coach for the second straight game. Whalen plans on returning to the team on Tuesday, January 11.
Sara Scalia leads the Gophers with a scoring average of 15.1 points per game this season. In addition to her scoring prowess, which ranks 12th in the Big Ten, Scalia is fifth in the Big Ten is 3-point percentage at 42.6 percent and is third in 3-point field goals made per game at 3.1 and has made the second most total threes at 46.
As a team this season Minnesota has the second-best three-point field goal percentage in the Big Ten at 37.7 which is also good enough for 11th best in the NCAA. On average the Maroon and Gold make 8.7 threes per game, good enough for the 32nd best mark in the nation and the second best in the conference. In total the team's 130 made threes is the most in the Big Ten and the 13th most in the country.
Jasmine Powell continues to distribute the basketball at the best rate of her career this season. The junior guard is third in the Big Ten this season in assists per game at 5.7, good enough for the 21st best rate in the country. She is one of just 10 players in the country to average 13.5 points per game and 5.7 assists per game, in that list, just three are on Power 5 teams, all of which are in the Big Ten conference.
At home this season the Gophers are 5-3 overall and average 72.9 points per game, a full four points higher than the team's average of 68.8 the entire season. Scalia leads the Maroon and Gold at a clip of 16.3 points per game at Williams Arena and has shot 47.2 percent from beyond the arc. At home Jasmine Powell has gotten to the line an average of 5.6 times per game and has averaged 6.7 assists per game while scoring 12.9 points per game at the Barn.
On Dec. 21, head coach Lindsay Whalen was announced as a candidate for the Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2022. Whalen, who is eligible for the first time this year, is on the ballot for her time as a player. After a stellar collegiate career where she led the Maroon and Gold to the Final Four, Whalen collected numerous honors and championships in the WNBA and with the U.S. National team. Finalists will be announced Friday, Feb. 18, in Cleveland, Ohio, during the NBA All-Star Weekend.
Minnesota recently announced its 2022 signing class on National Signing Day with head coach Lindsay Whalen welcoming in the No. 4 ranked recruiting class in the nation according to Jr. All Stars. Minnesota's four signees include Mara Braun (Wayzata, Minn.), Amaya Battle (Hopkins, Minn.), Mallory Heyer (Chaska, Minn.) and Niamya Holloway (Eden Prairie, Minn.).

BY THE NUMBERS
69 - Minnesota has seven wins to just one loss when allowing 69 points or less in games this season.
230 - Gadiva Hubbard has 230 career threes made and needs just one more to pass Shannon Schonrock (2002-06) for the 3rd most threes made in program history.
5 - Sara Scalia has scored in double figures in five straight games, the second longest streak of her career.
1 - Minnesota's opponents so far this season have a combined winning percentage of 70.1, the highest among the Big Ten's teams through Jan. 8.
2 - Sara Scalia became the second fastest Gopher to reach the top 10 in Minnesota history for threes made when. Scalia now sits at No. 9 in program history with 149 made threes.
27 - Against Ohio back on Dec. 15, Deja Winters became the 27th Gopher in school history to reach 1,000 points while playing for the Maroon and Gold.

Minnesota is back on the road for another Big Ten test on Jan. 12, against Wisconsin (3-10, 0-3 B1G) at 6:30 p.m. The game is set to be streamed on B1G+.

For more information on the Gophers, continue to check back with GopherSports.com. Keep up with the University of Minnesota women's basketball on Twitter and Instagram (@GopherWBB) and on Facebook, so you do not miss any content during the 2021-22 season.

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Players Mentioned

Katie Borowicz

Gadiva Hubbard

Jasmine Powell

Sara Scalia

Kadi Sissoko

Deja Winters