Big Ten Tournament Begins Thursday for Gophers

MINNEAPOLIS - Minnesota (14-16, 7-11 B1G) has earned the No. 10 seed and will face No. 7 Northwestern (16-11, 8-8 B1G) in the second round of the 2021 Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis Thursday at 5:30 p.m. CT. The game can be seen by a national television audience on Big Ten Network and heard on the Gophers' radio home, 96.7 KFAN Plus.

ABOUT THIS GAME

Minnesota and Northwestern will meet for the 77th time ever on Thursday. It's the fourth most-played series for Minnesota behind only Iowa, Wisconsin and Ohio State.
The all-time series is tied at 38 wins each. Minnesota has won seven of the last 10 in the series. The last time the Gophers held the advantage in the series was in 2017.
The Golden Gophers and Wildcats have met once this season in a rescheduled contest at Williams Arena on Feb. 11. Minnesota won a wire-to-wire game 74-68. Led by graduates Laura Bagwell Katalinich and Gadvia Hubbard, who both scored 19, the Gophers led by as much as 18. Securing her first double double as a Gopher, Bagwell Katalinich, a Minneapolis, Minn. native, came down with a game-high 12 rebounds in the win.
In neutral locations, the Wildcats hold a 5-2 advantage over the Gophers while at the Big Ten Tournament, Northwestern and Minnesota are 2-2 all-time against one another.
Winners of two of their last three, Northwestern enters the Big Ten Tournament with their most recent result being a loss on the road to Nebraska 73-59. Northwestern this season has quality wins over then-No. 4 Michigan (71-69 2OT) and at then-No. 22 Iowa (77-69).
In her career, Gophers head coach Lindsay Whalen has only lost to Northwestern twice, going 5-0 as a player and is 3-2 as a coach.
Veronica Burton earned her third-straight Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year Award while also being named to the All-Big Ten First Team by both the coaches and media, the conference announced Monday. Courtney Shaw achieved All-Big Ten Honorable Mention honors, and Jess Sancataldo was recognized with a Big Ten Sportsmanship Award. Burton is the second player ever to win three Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year Awards.

GOPHER NOTABLES

Last time out Minnesota closed its regular season out with a 94-83 road win over Penn State (11-17, 5-13 B1G) at the Bryce Jordan Center to secure a first-round bye in the 2022 Big Ten Tournament. The Golden Gophers got a pair of 32-point performances from Sara Scalia and Kadi Sissoko to earn the No. 10 seed. To go with her career-high 32 points, Sissoko added a career-high 14 rebounds in the victory. Laura Bagwell Katalinich also notched a double double, her second of the season, with 16 points and 10 rebounds. The two double doubles in one game marked the first time since 2018 a pair of Gophers had double doubles in the same game.
Sara Scalia extended her double figures scoring streak to 20 with her performance against Penn State. Scalia is one of four players in the Big Ten that have active double-figures scoring streaks of at least 20 games. During the streak Scalia has averaged 20.5 points per game and is shooting 44.9 percent from three (79-of-176) and has averaged 4.0 made threes per game. This season Scalia ranks 8th in the Big Ten in scoring average (17.8) and is seventh during Big Ten play at 19.4 points per game.
As a team this season Minnesota has the second-best three-point field goal percentage in the Big Ten at 38.2 which is also good enough for the fifth best in the NCAA. On average the Maroon and Gold make 8.5 threes per game, good enough for the 21st best mark in the nation and the second best in the conference. In total the team's 255 made threes are the most in the Big Ten and the 11th most in the country.
Playing her best basketball of the season, sixth-year senior Gadiva Hubbard dropped a season-high 22 in the win over Illinois, tying her career high in threes (6). In her last five games she has shot 18-of-41 (43.9 percent) from the floor and 15-of-31 (48.4 percent) from beyond the arc while averaging 11.0 points per game.
Laura Bagwell Katalinich, a Minneapolis, Minn., native, has stepped up in a big way for the Gophers since joining the starting lineup against Michigan State (2/6). In her last five games she's averaged 21.6 minutes per game and has been making impact plays all over. During that span she's averaged 12.6 points and 7.0 rebounds while shooting 47.9 percent from the floor.
In the team's last five wins, compared to the Gophers' last four losses in the team's 5-4 stretch, a direct correlation can be made with the rebounding battle. Minnesota has won all five games they have won the battle on the glass, and lost the rest where they were outrebounded. In wins, Minnesota held a +50 advantage on the glass versus a +36 for their opponents in losses.
Kadi Sissoko returned to the starting lineup for the Golden Gophers in their win over Penn State, logging 32 points and 14 rebounds in a career night for the redshirt junior from Paris, France. The performance is the first time a Gopher had 14 or more rebounds in a double double since Jesse Edwards had 16 in 2015 against Maine. It's the first 30-10 double double for the program since Feb. 17, 2015, when Amanda Zahui B. scored 39 points and had 29 rebounds in a win over No. 13 Iowa at Williams Arena.
Minnesota head coach Lindsay Whalen took another step toward the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Feb. 18, as the museum announced its finalists for the Class of 2022 that included the former Golden Gopher standout, WNBA great and Olympic gold medalist.

BY THE NUMBERS
3 - At 255 made threes this season the Gophers now have the third most threes in a single season, passing the 2019-20 team for the third most in their win over Illinois (since 1987-88).
20 - Sara Scalia has scored in double figures in 20 straight games, the longest streak of her career.
11 - Eleven different times this season a Gopher has scored 12 or more points in a single quarter including five times by Sara Scalia and three times by Deja Winters.
4 - Laura Bagwell Katalinich is four points away from 1,000 in her career.
5 - The Golden Gophers have made the fifth-most threes in the nation this year at 255.
2 - A win in the Big Ten Tournament would be head coach Lindsay Whalen's second of her coaching career.

The 2022 Big Ten Tournament will run from March 2-6 in Indianapolis. All games, except for the championship game on ESPN2, will be broadcasted on the Big Ten Network. All of Minnesota's games 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

Deja Winters