Gophers Welcome No. 3/3 Ohio State to Williams Arena Thursday

MINNEAPOLIS - The University of Minnesota (8-6, 1-2 B1G) returns to play against No. 3/3 Ohio State (15-0, 3-0 B1G) on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Williams Arena. The game is scheduled to be streamed on B1G+ and can be heard on the iHeartRadio app or on KFAN+ with Justin Gaard and Lynnette Sjoquist on the call.

ABOUT THE MARYLAND GAME

Minnesota's matchup with Ohio State is the 80th in the all-time series between the two programs. The last time the Gophers and Buckeyes met was last season at Williams Arena when Ohio State edged Minnesota 83-75. Alanna 'Rose' Micheaux was the only current Gopher to play in that game, she finished with five points and seven rebounds. Katie Borowicz is the only other Gopher that has played against the Buckeyes on the current roster, she played Ohio State back on Feb. 7, 2021, and had six points, five rebounds and three assists in Columbus.
Minnesota is 16-63 overall against the Buckeyes, the last win coming 2507 days ago at Williams Arena.
The Buckeyes are coming into Thursday's matchup as the No. 3 team in the nation in both the AP and Coaches' Poll. Ohio State has won 15 straight games. The Buckeyes and Gophers have not faced similar opponents so far this season.
Ohio State was picked to finish second in the Big Ten Preseason Coaches' Poll and third in the media poll.
Ohio State has been without Jacy Sheldon, a 2022 Preseason All-Big Ten Team member (unanimous for both media and coaches), since Nov. 30. Sheldon was also a 2022 Naismith Trophy Women's Watch List player and is listed as 'week-to-week' by Ohio State. In five games this season Sheldon has averaged 16 points, six steals, 3.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists.
Madison Greene is the latest Buckeye to go down with an injury as the redshirt junior will miss the rest of the season after falling to injury against South Florida on Dec. 20. Greene had been averaging 10.9 points per game this season and was shooting 48.3 percent from the floor.
Ohio State has seen freshman Cotie McMahon step up in place of her injured teammates. She's won four straight freshman of the week honors from the conference and is averaging 12.4 points per game and is shooting 51.7 percent from the floor in 23.1 minutes per game.

GOPHER NOTABLES

Last time out the Maroon and Gold dropped a road matchup with No. 16/17 Maryland in College Park, Md. Alanna 'Rose' Micheaux scored a season high 22 points on 10-of-15 shooting while Maggie Czinano registered a career high 16 off the bench. In total the Gophers had four that reached double figures with Mara Braun (10) and Katie Borowicz (10) joining Micheaux and Czinano. Freshman guard Amaya Battle had one of her best all-around performances with eight points, 10 rebounds, eight assists and one block while shooting 4-of-9 from the floor.
Despite the loss to Maryland last week, Minnesota's offense has been humming overall in its past four contests, going 3-1 in that span. The offense has shot 44.9 percent (122-of-272) from the floor in its past four contests and 36.6 percent (26-of-71) from beyond the arc, both up from the team's overall season averages of 42.3 percent form the floor and 33.2 percent from three. In that stretch Minnesota has also done well on the glass, out rebounding their opponents on average by 7.8 per game (179 to 148 total).
Alanna 'Rose' Micheaux extended her double figures scoring streak to four games in the loss to Maryland on Dec. 30. The sophomore has turned up her efficiency, scoring 15.3 points per game while shooting 59.1 percent (26-of-44) from the floor in that span. She's also averaged 7.0 rebounds per game and 3.3 offensive rebounds in that stretch.
As of Dec. 27, Minnesota's latest starting lineup of Mara Braun, Amaya Battle, Mallory Heyer, Katie Borowicz and Alanna 'Rose' Micheaux, is an average age of 19 years and 4 months and 27 days. The group consists of three true freshmen, one redshirt freshman and one sophomore with the group's first three games against Power 5 opponents. Minnesota is the only Big Ten team to start four freshmen in a game this season (Wisconsin is the only other team to start three). The only other team to start four freshmen in the nation is Navy.
Freshman guard Amaya Battle continues to show why she is one of the most versitile young guards in the country with her play. Battle is 13th overall in the Big Ten in rebounding per game (6.4) and is the No. 1 freshman in the conference in rebouding. She's seventh in assists per game (4.7) in the Big Ten, and is the No. 1 freshman, and is 11th overall in blocks per game (0.9), all while averaging 9.9 points per game.
Through 14 games this season Minnesota continues to prove itself a quality team on the boards with an average rate of 43.5 per game as a team which is No. 1 in the Big Ten conference and No. 24 in the nation. The team has been one of the best on the offensive glass at 13.9 per game, No. 2 in the Big Ten.
Minnesota head coach Lindsay Whalen announced the addition of five student-athletes on Nov. 16, that have signed National Letters of Intent or an Acceptance of Admission to join the Minnesota women's basketball program for the 2023-24 season. Signing NLIs with the Golden Gophers are Kennedy Klick, MyKynnlie Dalan, Ajok Madol and Dominika Paurová while Brynn Senden signed an Acceptance of Admission.

BY THE NUMBERS
3 - No. 3 Amaya Battle, a freshman, is averaging 12.7 points, 6.7 rebounds and 5.7 assists in her first three Big Ten games of her career.
10 - Minnesota is seeking to break a 10-game losing streak to Ohio State.
4 - The Gophers have shot 46.4 percent (109-235) from the floor in the fourth quarter this season.
8 - Mallory Heyer has made at least one three in eight consecutive games.
62 - This season Minnesota gets 62 percent of its scoring from either freshmen or redshirt freshmen.

The University of Minnesota heads to rival Wisconsin on Jan. 8, to take on the Badgers at the Kohl Center. The game is set for a 3 p.m. tip on B1G+ and can be heard on the iHeartRadio app or 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 2022-23 season.

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Players Mentioned

Amaya Battle

Katie Borowicz

Mara Braun

Maggie Czinano

Mallory Heyer