Gophers Off to Lincoln for Rematch with Nebraska

MINNEAPOLIS - The University of Minnesota women's basketball team (15-11, 5-10 B1G) is headed to Lincoln, Neb. for the team's penultimate regular season road game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers (18-9, 10-6 B1G). The rematch between the Gophers and Cornhuskers will be streamed on B1G+ from Pinnacle Bank Arena while Justin Gaard and Lynnette Sjoquist will broadcast the game on KFAN+.

GAME INFORMATION
TV/Stream: B1G+
Tip Time: 4:00 p.m. CT.
Radio: KFAN+ (96.7 FM) and the iHeartRadio app (Justin Gaard and Lynnette Sjoquist)

ABOUT THE NEBRASKA GAME

Minnesota and Nebraska are meeting for the 31st time, with the Cornhuskers holding an 16-14 advantage in the series that started back in 1977. Minnesota won the matchup earlier this season at Williams Arena, 62-58.
Minnesota picked up a four-point win over the Cornhuskers back on Jan. 14. In that game Minnesota raced out to 32-19 halftime lead and held the Huskers to its third-worst shooting percentage (34.4 percent) from the floor. For Minnesota, Mallory Heyer led Minnesota with 16 points and seven rebounds.
Nebraska has won four of its past five games including a home win over then No. 2/2 Iowa, 82-79. The only loss during that span was to No. 2/2 Ohio State, 80-47.
As of Feb. 22, Nebraska is 11th nationally in rebound margin at plus-9.3 while their average attendance of 6,148 is No. 14 in the NCAA. The Cornhuskers are 32nd nationally in threes attempted per game at 24.8 and are 38th in threes made at 8.1.
Preseason first-team All-Big Ten selections Alexis Markowski and Jaz Shelley have fueled Nebraska's surge in the conference. Markowski, who leads the league with 16 double-doubles, produced 20 points and 21 rebounds in the win at Purdue, which was just the fifth 20/20 effort in Husker history. Shelley added 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists at Purdue, after she was Nebraska's first AP National Player of the Week (Feb. 13). Shelley earned her first Big Ten Player-of-the-Week honor with 23 points in the win over No. 2 Iowa (Feb. 11).

GOPHER NOTABLES

Minnesota dropped its 11th game of the season at Williams Arena on Feb. 20 to the Wisconsin Badgers by a score of 67-56. Amaya Battle led Minnesota with 16 points, 12 coming in the second half, and added five assists. Freshman Ayianna Johnson, a Wisconsin native, made her first career start against the Badgers and registered a Big Ten career high 11 points and career high seven rebounds in the loss. Minnesota trailed by as much as 19 points before cutting the game to six in the fourth quarter.
Last week Grace Grocholski was named the Big Ten's Freshman of the Week for the third time this season after her performances against Rutgers and Northwestern. She scored at a rate of 25 points per game while shooting 69.2 percent from the floor (18-of-26) and 68.4 percent (13-of-19) from three. She tied a Minnesota freshman record with seven threes in one game, hitting 7-of-12 against Rutgers to finish with 23 points. Grocholski leads all Big Ten freshmen in overall scoring (11.5) and scoring during conference play (11.6).
University of Minnesota head women's basketball coach Dawn Plitzuweit announced on Jan. 29, that sophomore guard Mara Braun suffered a foot injury against Illinois that will require surgery and will be out indefinitely. This season Braun has been one of the Big Ten's top scorers at 17.8 points per game, which is fourth in the conference, while shooting a career high 37 percent from three.
Without Mara Braun in the lineup Janay Sanders has slid into the starting lineup for the Gophers the past six games and has upped her scoring average from 5.3 to 14.0 points per game. Since joining the starting linep Sanders has the second-best field goal percentage on the team at 52.9 percent (27-of-51). Sanders has been the most effective when driving to the basket with the graduate from Charlotte, N.C., leading the team in fouls drawn at 4.3 per game during conference play.
At 282 Amaya Battle is 32 assists away from breaking into the program's all-time top 10 career assists. At her current pace of 5.04 assists per game, Battle is on pace to reach 605 assists, which would be second all-time at the 'U' with the all-time record being 633 by Deb Hunter (1979-83).

BY THE NUMBERS
4 - Grocholski has hit 63 threes this season, and is FOUR away from the second most in a single season in school history by a freshman.
4.3 - During conference play Janay Sanders has drawn an average of 4.3 fouls per game, the most on the team.
38 - In Minnesota's last three games they have shot 38.2 percent from three in the first half.
48 - During conference play Minnesota has shot 48.1 percent from the floor in the fourth quarter.
11 - Minnesota is 11-2 this season when scoring 70 or more points.

The Maroon and Gold returns home for its final regular season home contest against the Iowa Hawkeyes on Wednesday, Feb. 28. The game is scheduled to be streamed on Peacock starting at 8 p.m. CT.

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 (X.com), Instagram (@GopherWBB) and on Facebook, so you do not miss any content during the 2023-24 season.

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Players Mentioned

Amaya Battle

Mara Braun

Grace Grocholski

Mallory Heyer

Ayianna Johnson

Janay Sanders