Minnesota Hosts Rutgers Thursday, Looking for Fourth-Straight Home Win

MINNEAPOLIS - Minnesota (12-14, 5-9 B1G) remains home for a Thursday-night matchup with Rutgers (8-17, 1-12 B1G) at 7 p.m., at Williams Arena. The game can be streamed on B1G+ and fans can also listen to the game on KFAN+ with Justin Gaard and Lynnette Sjoquist on the call.

ABOUT THIS GAME

Minnesota and Rutgers will meet for just the 12th time ever Thursday. The Scarlet Knights hold a slight 6-5 lead in the all-time series.
Thursday's matchup with the Scarlet Knights is the second between the two programs this season. The first matchup came on Jan. 6, in Piscataway, where the Gophers prevailed 62-49, at Jersey Mikes' Arena to kick off the 2022 portion of the season. In that contest, without head coach Lindsay Whalen (appendectomy), Kadi Sissoko scored all 11 of her points in the fourth quarter to help Minnesota close out Rutgers on the road for their first Big Ten win of the year.
Earlier this season, Minnesota won the first road game in the series, making Minnesota now 1-6 all-time in Piscataway. Minnesota has won all four meetings in Minneapolis.
Minnesota sophomore Alexia Smith and Rutgers freshman Sakima Walker were high school teammates at Africentric Early College in Columbus, Ohio. They won two state titles together and reached the state semifinals in 2020 before COVID-19 ended the season early.
Rutgers is 8-17 on the season and is 1-12 in the Big Ten. Rutgers won its first Big Ten game on Feb. 13, at home against Penn State 71-62. The win over the Nittany Lions was the first win for Rutgers since Dec. 18, agaisnt Wagner. This season the Scarlet Knights are 0-8 on the road.
Osh Brown has been the team's most consistent scorer this season being the only individual scoring in double figures at 10.4. Behind her is Lasha Petree who averages 8.0 per game and Shug Dickson who averages 7.4.
As a team, Rutgers leads the conference in scoring defense (58.8; 76th nationally) and is third in rebound margin (5.8; 44th nationally) and 3-point percentage defense (30.3; 159th nationally).

GOPHER NOTABLES

Last time out the Gophers won their third straight game at Williams Arena with a 74-68 victory over Northwestern (13-9, 5-6 B1G). Led by graduates Laura Bagwell Katalinich and Gadvia Hubbard, who both scored 19, the Gophers led wire to wire and led by as much as 18. Securing her first double double as a Gopher, Bagwell Katalinich came down with a game-high 12 rebounds in the win. Hubbard scored a season-high 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor and 5-of-8 from deep. Securing her 16th straight double figure scoring game was junior guard Sara Scalia, finishing with 18 points.
Sara Scalia extended her double figures scoring streak to 16 with her performance against Northwestern. Scalia is one of four players in the Big Ten that have active double-figures scoring streaks of at least 16 games. During the streak Scalia has averaged 20.1 points per game and is shooting 44.3 percent from three (62-of-140) and has averaged 3.9 made threes per game. This season Scalia ranks 10th in the Big Ten in scoring average (17.1) and is eighth during Big Ten play at 18.7 points per game.
As a team this season Minnesota has the second-best three-point field goal percentage in the Big Ten at 37.9 which is also good enough for seventh best in the NCAA. On average the Maroon and Gold make 8.6 threes per game, good enough for the 23rd best mark in the nation and the second best in the conference. In total the team's 223 made threes is the most in the Big Ten and the 12th most in the country.
After playing some of her best basketball off the bench, Laura Bagwell Katalinich, a Minneapolis, Minn., native stepped into the starting lineup for the first time against Michigan State (2/6). In her last five games she's averaged nearly 21 minutes per game and has been making impact plays all over. During that span she's averaged 9.8 points and 5.4 rebounds while shooting 51.4 percent from the floor.
Guard Deja Winters has continued to show why she is one of the Big Ten's most impactful grad transfers this season. Averaging 11.9 points per game. Winters also has been the Gophers best on-ball defender this season. Her 29 steals (2.1 per game) during conference play is fifth in the Big Ten this season and her 26 total blocks (1.0 per game) this year are good enough for the eighth most in the conference.
Minnesota has been attacking the glass at a much higher rate in their past five games in comparison to the rest of the season. The team has averaged 13.0 offensive rebounds per game compared to 11.0 through the first 21 games of the season.
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's four signees in the 2022 signing class were all named McDonald's All-America Games nominees last week. Those future Golden Gophers include Mara Braun (Wayzata, Minn.), Amaya Battle (Hopkins, Minn.), Mallory Heyer (Chaska, Minn.) and Niamya Holloway (Eden Prairie, Minn.).

BY THE NUMBERS
223 - At 223 made threes this season the Gophers are just 15 behind the 2019-20 team for the third most in a single season (since 1987-88).
16 - Sara Scalia has scored in double figures in 16 straight games, the longest streak of her career.
8 - Eight different times this season a Gopher has scored 12 or more points in a single quarter including four times by Sara Scalia and three times by Deja Winters.
28 - Sara Scalia became the 28th student-athlete to reach 1,000 career points while playing at the University of Minnesota, joining Deja Winters this season.
129 - On Thursday grad student Gadiva Hubbard will move into a tie for second in program history for games played at Minnesota at 129, tying her with Carlie Wagner and Linda Roberts.
2 - Sara Scalia is just two threes away from making the second most threes in a single Big Ten season, the most is 75 by Rachel Banham (2015-16).

Minnesota heads out for its second to last road game of the regular season on Feb. 20, when the team travels to Lincoln, Neb., to take on the Cornhuskers for the second time this season. The game, which is scheduled for a 2 p.m. tip, can be seen on B1G+ and can be heard on KFAN+.

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

Laura Bagwell Katalinich

Gadiva Hubbard

Sara Scalia

Kadi Sissoko

Alexia Smith

Deja Winters